Dark Tools

Name: Dark Tools
Start: 2025-06-16T08:00:00+02:00
End: 2025-06-19T21:00:00+02:00
Location: Dipartimento di Fisica

16 Jun 2025, 08:00 → 19 Jun 2025, 21:00 Europe/Brussels

Aula C (Dipartimento di Fisica)

Aula C

Dipartimento di Fisica

Via Pietro Giuria 1 10100 Torino

Mattia Di Mauro (INFN Torino), Chiara Arina (IRMP)

Description

This workshop explores the multidisciplinary study of dark matter through direct and indirect detection, collider searches, and cosmological observations, with a focus on their integration with widely used dark matter tools. Participants will gain insights into the current status of dark matter research and the tools that underpin advancements in the field.

The program features hands-on sessions for practical engagement with these tools and round-table discussions to explore future developments, to align them with the evolving needs of the dark matter community.

Most talks are by invitation only, but there will be a session for 10-minute presentations by young researchers. PhD students and researchers interested in presenting can submit an abstract here.

Please be cautious, as multiple scamming attempts are targeting the participants of this event. All official communications will come directly from one of the organizers. Accommodation is not provided, and each participant is responsible for arranging their own lodging. Do not respond to scam emails offering accommodation.

Organising committee:

Mattia di Mauro (INFN Torino)
Nicolao Fornengo (Unito)
Chiara Arina (UCLouvain, CP3)
Olivier Mattelear (UCLouvain, CP3)
Benjamin Fuks (Sorbonne Université, LPTHE, Paris)
Genevieve Belanger (LAPTh, CNRS, USMB, Annecy)
Fawzi Boudjema (LAPTh, CNRS, USMB, Annecy)
Torsten Bringmann (Oslo University)
Andreas Goudelis (LPC, CNRS, Clermont-Ferrand)
Nazila Mahmoudi (IP2I, Lyon)
Tracy Slatyer (MIT)

Confirmed speakers

Spyros Argyropoulos (Aristotele University of Thessaloniki)
Laura Baudis (University of Zurich)
David Cerdeno (IFT, UAM, Madrid)
Marco Cirelli (Sorbonne Université, LPTHE, Paris)
Alessandro Cuoco (Università di Torino, INFN)
Nicolao Fornengo (Unito)
Yoann Génolini (LAPTh Annecy)
Jan Heisig (RWTH Aachen)
Felix Kahlhoefer (KIT)
Laura Lopez Honorez (Université Libre de Bruxelles)
Tracy Slatyer (MIT)

Tools presented:

DarkSUSY (Torsten Bringmann)
FeynRules (Benjamin Fuks)
MadDM (Daniele Massaro and Gian Marco Lucchetti)
MadGraph (Olivier mattelear and Luca Beccatini)
MARTY and DarkPack (Niels Fardeau and Marco Palmiotto)
micrOMEGAs (Andreas Goudelis)
Pythia (...)

For each tool, there will be an introductory talk covering its main functionality, followed by a two-hour tutorial session to make participants actually learn and understand how it works. Each session will be conducted by one of the tool's developers.

Registration

Registration and payment

Participants

Alessandro Cuoco
Benjamin Fuks
Chiara Arina
David Cerdeño
Felix Kahlhoefer
Gian Marco Lucchetti
Jan Heisig
Laura Baudis
Marco CIRELLI
MATTIA DI MAURO
Spyros Argyropoulos
Torsten Bringmann
Yoann Génolini
+3

Contact

chiara.arina@uclouvain.be

mattia.dimauro@to.infn.it

Monday, 16 June
- 08:50 → 09:00
  
  Welcome 10m
- 09:00 → 10:30
  Overview talks
  
  morning talks, overview on dark matter searches and models
  - 09:00
    
    General Review about DM: evidences, candidates and searches 45m
    
    In this overview talk I will try not to bore the surely already expert audience with some basic facts about Dark Matter, including evidences, candidates and searches, in order to set the tone for the more technical discussions that will follow.
    
    Speaker: Marco CIRELLI (LPTHE CNRS/Sorbonne Paris)
  - 09:45
    
    Cosmological evidence for dark matter 45m
    
    Speaker: Tracy Slatyer (MIT)
- 10:30 → 11:00
  
  Coffee break 30m
- 11:00 → 12:30
  Overview talks
  
  morning talks, overview on dark matter searches and models
  - 11:00
    
    Non-WIMP dark matter 45m
    
    Speaker: Dr Laura Lopez Honorez (ULB)
  - 11:45
    
    Dark Matter relic density 45m
    
    Speaker: Jan Heisig (CP3 - UC Louvain)
- 12:30 → 14:00
  
  Lunch 1h 30m
- 14:00 → 15:00
  Tools talks
  - 14:00
    
    FeynRules 30m
  - 14:30
    
    Marty and DarkPack 30m
    
    Speakers: Marco Palmiotto (Oslo University), Niels Fardeau (Lyon University)
- 15:00 → 15:30
  
  Coffee break 30m
- 15:30 → 17:30
  Hands-on session
  - 15:30
    
    FeynRules 1h
  - 16:30
    
    Marty and DarkPack 1h
    
    Speakers: Marco Palmiotto (Oslo University), Niels Fardeau (Lyon University)
Tuesday, 17 June
- 09:00 → 10:30
  Overview talks
  
  morning talks, overview on dark matter searches and models
  - 09:00
    
    (Some) Theoretical Considerations on Direct Dark Matter Searches 45m
    
    In this talk I will address the theoretical aspects related to direct dark matter detection. I will review the different DM signatures, the main challenges for the (near) future, and tackle issues such as parameter reconstruction, the associated uncertainties and strategies to identify the dark matter.
    
    Speaker: David Cerdeño (IFT-UAM/CSIC)
  - 09:45
    
    Direct dark matter detection: where are we and where are we going? 45m
    
    The fundamental nature of dark or invisible matter remains one of the great mysteries of our time. A leading hypothesis is that dark matter is made of new elementary particles, with proposed masses and interaction cross sections spanning an enormous range. Among these, particles with masses in the MeV-TeV range could be directly observed via scatters with atomic nuclei or electrons in ultra-low background detectors operated deep underground. After an introduction to the principles of direct dark matter detection, I will discuss the most promising experimental techniques, addressing their current and future science reach, as well as their complementarity.
    
    Speaker: Laura Baudis (University of Zurich)
- 10:30 → 11:00
  
  Coffee break 30m
- 11:00 → 12:30
  Overview talks
  
  morning talks, overview on dark matter searches and models
  - 11:00
    
    Indirect detection of dark matter with cosmic radiation 45m
    
    Annihilation or decay of Dark Matter (DM) can produce Standard Model particles, and in particular photons, which can be searched for in suitable astrophysical environments and reveal the, still unknown, DM properties.
    I will review the current status of DM indirect searches with cosmic radiation, from radio to gamma-rays, with a focus on the latter, discussing the most promising targets and results, as well as the astrophysical backgrounds and future directions.
    
    Speaker: Alessandro Cuoco (University of Turin & INFN)
  - 11:45
    
    Indirect detection of dark matter with cosmic-rays 45m
    
    Speaker: Yoann Génolini (LAPTH)
- 12:30 → 14:00
  
  Lunch 1h 30m
- 14:00 → 15:00
  Tools talks
  - 14:00
    
    Pythia 30m
  - 14:30
    
    MadGraph 30m
    
    Speaker: Olivier Mattelaer (CP3)
- 15:00 → 15:30
  
  Coffee break 30m
- 15:30 → 17:30
  Hands-on session
  - 15:30
    
    Pythia tutorial 1h
  - 16:30
    
    MadGraph_aMC@NLO tutorial 1h
    
    Speaker: Luca Beccatini (UCLouvain and Unibo)
- 20:00 → 22:00
  
  Social Dinner 2h
Wednesday, 18 June
- 09:00 → 10:30
  Overview talks
  
  morning talks, overview on dark matter searches and models
  - 09:00
    
    Dark sectors at accelerators 45m
    
    In this talk I will review searches for dark matter and other dark sector particles both at the energy frontier (using hadron colliders) and at the intensity frontier (using electron-positron colliders and beam-dump experiments). The focus will be on recent developments regarding model-building (strongly-interacting dark sectors, dark sectors with long-lived excited states or feebly-interacting mediators) and the corresponding phenomenology (dark showers, displaced vertex searches and exotic signatures). I will conclude with a short review of recent results, reinterpretation efforts and simulation tools.
    
    Speaker: Felix Kahlhoefer (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology)
  - 09:45
    
    Dark matter searches at collider, experimental overview 45m
    
    Speaker: Spyros Argyropoulos (Aristotele University of Thessaloniki)
- 10:30 → 11:00
  
  Coffee break 30m
- 11:00 → 12:30
  Overview talks
  
  morning talks, overview on dark matter searches and models
  - 11:00
    
    Dark Matter, future directions 45m
    
    Speaker: Nicolao Fornengo (Unito)
  - 11:45
    
    Round table 45m
- 12:30 → 14:00
  
  Lunch 1h 30m
- 14:00 → 15:00
  Tools talks
  - 14:00
    
    MadDM 30m
    
    Speaker: Daniele Massaro (CERN)
  - 14:30
    
    micrOMEGAs 30m
    
    Speaker: Andreas Goudelis (LPC)
- 15:00 → 15:30
  
  Coffee break 30m
- 15:30 → 17:30
  Hands-on session
  - 15:30
    
    MadDM tutorial 1h
    
    Speaker: Gian Marco Lucchetti (Unibo)
  - 16:30
    
    micrOMEGAs tutorial 1h
    
    Speaker: Andreas Goudelis (Laboratoire de Physique de Clermont Auvergne (LPCA), CNRS)
Thursday, 19 June
- 09:00 → 09:30
  Tools talks
  - 09:00
    
    DarkSUSY 30m
    
    Speaker: Torsten Bringmann (Oslo University)
- 09:30 → 10:30
  Hands-on session
  - 09:30
    
    DarkSUSY tutorial 1h
    
    Speaker: Torsten Bringmann (Oslo University)
- 10:30 → 11:00
  
  Coffee break 30m
- 11:00 → 12:30
  
  Round table: Young scientisti talks
- 12:30 → 14:00
  
  Lunch 1h 30m
- 14:00 → 15:00
  Hands-on session
  - 14:00
    
    PBH as dark matter 30m
  - 14:30
    
    MadAnalysis 30m
    
    Speaker: Luca Panizzi (Unica)
- 15:00 → 15:30
  
  Coffee break 30m
- 15:30 → 17:00
  
  Round table: Young scientist talks
- 17:00 → 17:20
  
  Closing 20m