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Fermionic sub-GeV dark matter from evaporating primordial black holes at DarkSide-50

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, R. Calabrese16,17, F. Calaprice18, A. Caminata12, N. Canci1, M. Caravati10, N. Cargioli10, M. Cariello12, M. Carlini1,2, P. Cavalcante19,1, S. Chashin20, A. Chepurnov20, M. Chianese21,17,16, D. D’Angelo22,23, S. Davini12, S. De Cecco24,9, A. V. Derbin25, M. D’Incecco1, C. Dionisi24,9, F. Dordei10, M. Downing26, G. Fiorillo16,17, D. Franco27, F. Gabriele10, C. Galbiati18,2,1, C. Ghiano1, C. Giganti28, G. K. Giovanetti18, A. M. Goretti1, G. Grilli di Cortona29,9, A. Grobov30,31, M. Gromov20,32, M. Guam33, M. Gulino34,35, B. R. Hackett4, K. Herner8, T. Hessel27, F. Hubaut36, E. V. Hungerford37, A. Ianni18,1, V. Ippolito9, K. Keeter38, C. L. Kendziora8, M. Kimura39, I. Kochanek1, D. Korablev32, G. Korga37,1, A. Kubankin40, M. Kuss7, M. La Commara16,17, M. Lai15,10, X. Li18, M. Lissia10, O. Lychagina32,20, I. N. Machulin30,31, L. P. Mapelli41, S. M. Mari13,14, J. Maricic42, A. Messina24,9, R. Milincic42, J. Monroe43, M. Morrocchi6,7, V. N. Muratova25, P. Musico12, A. O. Nozdrina30,31, A. Oleinik40, F. Ortica44,45, L. Pagani46, M. Pallavicini11,12, L. Pandola35, E. Pantic46, E. Paoloni6,7, K. Pelczar1,47, N. Pelliccia44,45, S. Piacentini24,9,1,2, A. Pocar26, M. Poehlmann46, S. Pordes8, S. S. Poudel37, P. Pralavorio36, D. Price48, F. Ragusa22,23, M. Razeti10, A. L. Renshaw37, M. Rescigno9, J. Rode28,27, A. Romani44,45, D. Sablone18,1, O. Samoylov32, S. Sanfilippo35, C. Savarese18, N. Saviano17,21, B. Schlitzer46, D. A. Semenov25, A. Sheshukov32, M. D. Skorokhvatov30,31, O. Smirnov32, A. Sotnikov32, S. Stracka7, Y. Suvorov16,17, R. Tartaglia1, G. Testera12, A. Tonazzo27, E. V. Unzhakov25, A. Vishneva32, R. B. Vogelaar19, M. Wada39,15, H. Wang41, Y. Wang33,49, S. Westerdale50, M. M. Wojcik47, X. Xiao41, C. Yang33,49, and G. Zuzel47 (DarkSide-50 Collaboration*)

  • 1INFN Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, Assergi (AQ) 67100, Italy
  • 2Gran Sasso Science Institute, L’Aquila 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
  • 13Department of Mathematics and Physics—Roma Tre University, Roma 00146, Italy
  • 14INFN Roma Tre, Roma 00146, Italy
  • 15Physics Department, Università degli Studi di Cagliari, Cagliari 09042, Italy
  • 16Physics Department, Università degli Studi “Federico II” di Napoli, Napoli 80126, Italy
  • 17INFN Napoli, Napoli 80126, Italy
  • 18Physics Department, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA
  • 19Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, USA
  • 20Skobeltsyn Institute of Nuclear Physics, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow 119234, Russia
  • 21Scuola Superiore Meridionale, 80138 Napoli, Italy
  • 22Physics Department, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milano 20133, Italy
  • 23INFN Milano, Milano 20133, Italy
  • 24Physics Department, Sapienza Università di Roma, Roma 00185, Italy
  • 25Saint Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute, Gatchina 188350, Russia
  • 26Amherst Center for Fundamental Interactions and Physics Department, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003, USA
  • 27APC, Université de Paris, CNRS, Astroparticule et Cosmologie, Paris F-75013, France
  • 28LPNHE, CNRS/IN2P3, Sorbonne Université, Université Paris Diderot, Paris 75252, France
  • 29INFN Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, Frascati 00044, Italy
  • 30National Research Centre Kurchatov Institute, Moscow 123182, Russia
  • 31National Research Nuclear University MEPhI, Moscow 115409, Russia
  • 32Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna 141980, Russia
  • 33Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
  • 34Engineering and Architecture Department, 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
  • 40Radiation Physics Laboratory, Belgorod National Research University, Belgorod 308007, Russia
  • 41Physics and Astronomy Department, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA
  • 42Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Hawai’i, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822, USA
  • 43Department of Physics, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham TW20 0EX, United Kingdom
  • 44Chemistry, Biology and Biotechnology Department, Università degli Studi di Perugia, Perugia 06123, Italy
  • 45INFN Perugia, Perugia 06123, Italy
  • 46Department of Physics, University of California, Davis, California 95616, USA
  • 47M. Smoluchowski Institute of Physics, Jagiellonian University, 30-348 Krakow, Poland
  • 48Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, United Kingdom
  • 49University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
  • 50Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Riverside, California 92507, USA

  • *Contact author: ds-ed@lists.infn.it
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Phys. Rev. D 112, 123058 – Published 31 December, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/zfmd-k11f

Abstract

We present a search for boosted dark matter from primordial black hole (PBH) evaporation using the DarkSide-50 ionization-signal-only dataset corresponding to the experiment’s (12202±180)  kg d exposure. We focus on evaporation of PBHs with masses in the range [1014,1016]  g producing Dirac fermionic dark matter particles with sub-GeV kinetic energy. These relativistic particles, with energies up to hundreds of MeV, can generate detectable signals for masses below O(100)  MeV. The absence of a signal enables setting complementary limits to those derived from cosmological observations and direct detection searches for cosmic-ray-boosted dark matter.

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Phys. Rev. D 112, 123058– Published 31 December, 2025
  • Received 19 May 2025
  • Revised 20 November 2025
  • Accepted 25 November 2025
Article part of CHORUS
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