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    Setting limits on blazar-boosted dark matter with xenon-based detectors

    Erin Barillier1, Laura Manenti2,*, Knut Morå1, Paolo Padovani3,4, Isaac Sarnoff4,†, Yongheng Xu5,6, Björn Penning1, and Francesco Arneodo4

    • *Contact author: laura.manenti@sydney.edu.au
    • †Contact author: sarnoff@nyu.edu

    Phys. Rev. D 113, 023005 – Published 5 January, 2026

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/qxkb-4bpy

    Abstract

    Dual-phase xenon time projection chambers achieve optimal sensitivity for dark matter in the 10 to 1000  GeVc−2 mass range, but sub-GeV dark matter (DM) particles lack sufficient energy to produce nuclear recoils above detection thresholds in these detectors. Blazar-boosted dark matter offers a way to overcome this limitation. Relativistic jets in active galactic nuclei can accelerate light dark matter in their host-galaxy halos to energies that can leave detectable nuclear recoil signals in xenon-based detectors on Earth. We present the first blazar-boosted dark matter search that incorporates detector response modeling, using public data from XENON1T and LZ for the blazar TXS 0506+056. We model dark matter-proton scattering in the jet environment, covering the full process from jet acceleration through to detector response. We explore how the host galaxy dark matter density profile impacts our analysis. We set model-dependent exclusion regions on the dark-matter–nucleon scattering cross section for mχ≃1  MeVc−2 dark matter, between 5.8×10−31  cm2 and 6.3×10−29  cm2 using XENON1T data, and between 9.9×10−32  cm2 and 2.5×10−28  cm2 from LZ effective field theory dark matter searches. Our results show that astrophysical uncertainties, especially those in the dark-matter distribution near the supermassive black hole, are the main limitation of this search rather than detector effects. The limits are therefore model-dependent and should be seen as exploratory. They highlight both the potential and the present uncertainties of blazar-boosted dark matter as a probe of light dark matter.

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