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  • Open Access

First nuclear ultraheavy dark matter search in argon time projection chambers with the DarkSide-50 experiment

P. Agnes1,2, I. F. Albuquerque3, T. Alexander4, A. K. Alton5, M. Ave3, H. O. Back4, G. Batignani6,7, K. Biery8, V. Bocci9 et al. (DarkSide-50 Collaboration)

V. Bocci9, W. M. Bonivento10, B. Bottino11,12, S. Bussino13,14, M. Cadeddu10, M. Cadoni15,10, F. Calaprice16, A. Caminata12, M. D. Campos17, N. Canci2,18, M. Caravati10, N. Cargioli10, M. Cariello12, M. Carlini2,1, P. Cavalcante19,2, S. Chashin20, A. Chepurnov20, D. D’Angelo21,22, S. Davini12, S. De Cecco23,9, A. V. Derbin24, M. D’Incecco2, C. Dionisi23,9, F. Dordei10, M. Downing25, M. Fairbairn17, G. Fiorillo26,18, D. Franco27, F. Gabriele10, C. Galbiati16, C. Ghiano2, C. Giganti28, G. K. Giovanetti29, V. Goicoechea Casanueva30, A. M. Goretti2, G. Grilli di Cortona31,9, A. Grobov32, M. Gromov20, M. Guam33, M. Gulino34,35, B. R. Hackett4, K. Herner8, T. Hessel27, F. Hubaut36, E. V. Hungerford37, An. Ianni16,2, V. Ippolito9, K. Keeter38, C. L. Kendziora8, M. Kimura39, I. Kochanek2, D. Korablev40, G. Korga41, A. Kubankin42, J. Kumar30, M. Kuss7, M. La Commara26,18, M. Lai43, X. Li16, M. Lissia10, O. Lychagina40, I. N. Machulin32,44, L. P. Mapelli45,16, S. M. Mari13,14, J. Maricic30, A. Messina23,9, R. Milincic30, J. Monroe46, M. Morrocchi6,7, V. N. Muratova24, P. Musico12, A. O. Nozdrina32,44, A. Oleinik42, F. Ortica47,48, L. Pagani49, M. Pallavicini11,12, L. Pandola35, E. Pantic49, E. Paoloni6,7, K. Pelczar50, N. Pelliccia47,48, S. Piacentini1,2, A. Pocar25, M. Poehlmann49, S. Pordes19, S. S. Poudel37, P. Pralavorio36, D. Price51, F. Ragusa21,22, M. Razeti10, A. L. Renshaw37, M. Rescigno9, A. Romani47,48, D. Sablone16,2, O. Samoylov40, S. Sanfilippo35, C. Savarese16,52, B. Schlitzer49, D. A. Semenov24, A. Sheshukov40, M. D. Skorokhvatov32,44, O. Smirnov40, A. Sotnikov40, S. Stracka7, Y. Suvorov26,18, R. Tartaglia2, G. Testera12, A. Tonazzo27, E. V. Unzhakov24, A. Vishneva40, R. B. Vogelaar19, M. Wada39,15, H. Wang45, Y. Wang33,53, S. Westerdale54, M. M. Wojcik50, X. Xiao45, C. Yang33,53, and G. Zuzel50 (DarkSide-50 Collaboration)

  • 1Gran Sasso Science Institute, L’Aquila 67100, Italy
  • 2Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, Assergi (AQ) 67100, Italy
  • 3Instituto de Física, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo 05508-090, Brazil
  • 4Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington 99352, USA
  • 5Physics Department, Augustana University, Sioux Falls, South Dakota 57197, USA
  • 6Physics Department, Università degli Studi di Pisa, Pisa 56127, Italy
  • 7INFN Pisa, Pisa 56127, Italy
  • 8Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Batavia, Illinois 60510, USA
  • 9INFN Sezione di Roma, Roma 00185, Italy
  • 10INFN Cagliari, Cagliari 09042, Italy
  • 11Physics Department, Università degli Studi di Genova, Genova 16146, Italy
  • 12INFN Genova, Genova 16146, Italy
  • 13Mathematics and Physics Department, Università degli Studi Roma Tre, Roma 00146, Italy
  • 14INFN Roma Tre, Roma 00146, Italy
  • 15Physics Department, Università degli Studi di Cagliari, Cagliari 09042, Italy
  • 16Physics Department, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA
  • 17Physics, Kings College London, Strand, London WC2R 2LS, United Kingdom
  • 18INFN Napoli, Napoli 80126, Italy
  • 19Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, USA
  • 20Skobeltsyn Institute of Nuclear Physics, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow 119234, Russia
  • 21Physics Department, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milano 20133, Italy
  • 22INFN Milano, Milano 20133, Italy
  • 23Physics Department, Sapienza Università di Roma, Roma 00185, Italy
  • 24Saint Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute, Gatchina 188350, Russia
  • 25Amherst Center for Fundamental Interactions and Physics Department, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003, USA
  • 26Physics Department, Università degli Studi “Federico II” di Napoli, Napoli 80126, Italy
  • 27APC, Université Paris Diderot, CNRS/IN2P3, CEA/Irfu, Obs de Paris, USPC, Paris 75205, France
  • 28LPNHE, CNRS/IN2P3, Sorbonne Université, Université Paris Diderot, Paris 75252, France
  • 29Williams College, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Williamstown, Massachusetts 01267 USA
  • 30Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Hawai’i, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822, USA
  • 31INFN Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, Frascati 00044, Italy
  • 32National Research Centre Kurchatov Institute, Moscow 123182, Russia
  • 33Institute of High Energy Physics, Beijing 100049, China
  • 34Engineering and Architecture Faculty, Università di Enna Kore, Enna 94100, Italy
  • 35INFN Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, Catania 95123, Italy
  • 36Centre de Physique des Particules de Marseille, Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS/IN2P3, CPPM, Marseille, France
  • 37Department of Physics, University of Houston, Houston, Texas 77204, USA
  • 38School of Natural Sciences, Black Hills State University, Spearfish, South Dakota 57799, USA
  • 39AstroCeNT, Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center of the Polish Academy of Sciences, 00-614 Warsaw, Poland
  • 40Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna 141980, Russia
  • 41Department of Physics, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham TW20 0EX, United Kingdom
  • 42Radiation Physics Laboratory, Belgorod National Research University, Belgorod 308007, Russia
  • 43Department of Physics, Engineering Physics, and Astronomy, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, K7L 3N6, Canada
  • 44National Research Nuclear University MEPhI, Moscow 115409, Russia
  • 45Physics and Astronomy Department, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA
  • 46University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 2JD, United Kingdom
  • 47Chemistry, Biology and Biotechnology Department, Università degli Studi di Perugia, Perugia 06123, Italy
  • 48INFN Perugia, Perugia 06123, Italy
  • 49Department of Physics, University of California, Davis, California 95616, USA
  • 50M. Smoluchowski Institute of Physics, Jagiellonian University, 30-348 Krakow, Poland
  • 51The University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, United Kingdom
  • 52Center for Experimental Nuclear Physics and Astrophysics, and Department of Physics, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA
  • 53University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
  • 54Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Riverside, California 92507, USA

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Phys. Rev. D 114, 052001 – Published 3 September, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/r3zg-zlfg

Abstract

We report on the first search for nuclear ultraheavy dark matter (UHDM) in a dual-phase liquid argon time projection chamber using the DarkSide-50 experiment. Unlike conventional weakly interacting massive particles, a nuclear UHDM model may be composed of many dark nucleons and scatter numerous times while passing through the detector. Accounting for energy loss through the Earth’s overburden, we apply selection criteria optimized for multiscatter event topologies using the 532-day low-radiation campaign of the DarkSide-50 detector. Excluded limits on the UHDM-nucleon scattering cross section for dark nucleon masses of mχ=10,50,100,500  GeV/c2 are presented.

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Information

Phys. Rev. D 114, 052001– Published 3 September, 2026
  • Received 12 February 2026
  • Accepted 6 July 2026
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