Absorption of Fermionic Dark Matter in the PICO-60 <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mrow><msub><mrow><mi mathvariant="normal">C</mi></mrow><mrow><mn>3</mn></mrow></msub><msub><mrow><mi mathvariant="normal">F</mi></mrow><mrow><mn>8</mn></mrow></msub></mrow></math> Bubble Chamber

PICO Collaboration; E. Adams; B. Ali; R. Anderson-Dornan; I. J. Arnquist; M. Bai; D. Baxter; E. Behnke; B. Broerman; C. J. Chen; K. Clark; J. I. Collar; P. S. Cooper; D. Cranshaw; C. Cripe; M. Crisler; C. E. Dahl; M. Das; S. Das; S. Fallows; J. Farine; R. Filgas; A. García-Viltres; G. Giroux; O. Harris; H. Hawley-Herrera; T. Hillier; E. W. Hoppe; C. M. Jackson; M. Jin; C. B. Krauss; M. Laurin; I. Lawson; A. Leblanc; H. Leng; I. Levine; C. Licciardi; W. H. Lippincott; Q. Malin; P. Mitra; V. Monette; C. Moore; R. Neilson; A. J. Noble; H. Nozard; S. Pal; M.-C. Piro; S. Priya; C. Rethmeier; M. Robert; A. E. Robinson; J. Savoie; S. J. Sekula; A. Sonnenschein; N. Starinski; I. Štekl; M. Tripathi; E. Vázquez-Jáuregui; U. Wichoski; W. Woodley; V. Zacek; J. Zhang

doi:10.1103/1cwz-m1c3

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Absorption of Fermionic Dark Matter in the PICO-60 $C_{3} F_{8}$ Bubble Chamber

E. Adams¹, B. Ali², R. Anderson-Dornan^3,*, I. J. Arnquist⁴, M. Bai¹, D. Baxter⁵, E. Behnke⁶, B. Broerman¹, C. J. Chen⁷ et al. (PICO Collaboration)

C. J. Chen⁷, K. Clark¹, J. I. Collar⁸, P. S. Cooper⁵, D. Cranshaw¹, C. Cripe⁶, M. Crisler⁵, C. E. Dahl^7,5, M. Das⁹, S. Das⁹, S. Fallows¹⁰, J. Farine^11,12,13, R. Filgas², A. García-Viltres³, G. Giroux¹, O. Harris¹⁴, H. Hawley-Herrera¹, T. Hillier¹¹, E. W. Hoppe⁴, C. M. Jackson⁴, M. Jin⁷, C. B. Krauss¹⁰, M. Laurin¹⁵, I. Lawson^11,12, A. Leblanc¹¹, H. Leng¹⁶, I. Levine⁶, C. Licciardi^11,12,13, W. H. Lippincott^5,17, Q. Malin¹⁰, P. Mitra¹⁰, V. Monette¹⁵, C. Moore¹, R. Neilson¹⁸, A. J. Noble¹, H. Nozard¹⁵, S. Pal¹⁰, M.-C. Piro¹⁰, S. Priya¹⁶, C. Rethmeier¹⁰, M. Robert¹, A. E. Robinson¹⁵, J. Savoie¹⁵, S. J. Sekula^1,12, A. Sonnenschein⁵, N. Starinski¹⁵, I. Štekl², M. Tripathi⁸, E. Vázquez-Jáuregui ^3,†, U. Wichoski^11,12,13, W. Woodley¹⁰, V. Zacek¹⁵, and J. Zhang^7,‡ (PICO Collaboration)

¹Department of Physics, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6, Canada
²Institute of Experimental and Applied Physics, Czech Technical University in Prague, Prague Cz-12800, Czech Republic
³Instituto de Física, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, A.P. 20-364, Ciudad de México 01000, México
⁴Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington 99354, USA
⁵Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Batavia, Illinois 60510, USA
⁶Department of Physics, Indiana University South Bend, South Bend, Indiana 46634, USA
⁷Department of Physics and Astronomy, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USA
⁸Enrico Fermi Institute, KICP, and Department of Physics, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA
⁹High Energy Nuclear and Particle Physics Division, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata, India
¹⁰Department of Physics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E1, Canada
¹¹School of Natural Sciences, Laurentian University, Sudbury, Ontario P3E 2C6, Canada
¹²SNOLAB, Lively, Ontario P3Y 1N2, Canada
¹³Department of Physics, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario K1S 5B6, Canada
¹⁴Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago, Illinois 60625, USA
¹⁵Département de Physique, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec H2V 0B3, Canada
¹⁶Materials Research Institute, Penn State, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA
¹⁷Department of Physics, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California 93106, USA
¹⁸Department of Physics, Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA

^*Contact author: rajan.anderson@gmail.com
^†Contact author: ericvj@fisica.unam.mx
^‡Present address: Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, Illinois 60439, USA

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Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 011001 – Published 1 July, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/1cwz-m1c3

Abstract

Fermionic dark matter absorption on nuclear targets via neutral current interactions is explored using a nonrelativistic effective field theory framework. An analysis of data from the PICO-60 $C_{3} F_{8}$ bubble chamber sets leading constraints on spin-independent absorption for dark matter masses below $23 MeV / c^{2}$ and establishes the first limits on spin-dependent absorptive interactions. These results demonstrate the sensitivity of bubble chambers to low-mass dark matter and underscore the importance of absorption searches in expanding the parameter space of direct detection experiments.

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Absorption of Fermionic Dark Matter in the PICO-60 $C_{3} F_{8}$ Bubble Chamber

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Absorption of Fermionic Dark Matter in the PICO-60 C3F8 Bubble Chamber

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Absorption of Fermionic Dark Matter in the PICO-60 $C_{3} F_{8}$ Bubble Chamber