Dark Tools

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

Aula C (Dipartimento di Fisica)

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

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.

 

Monday, 16 June

1 Welcome

Overview talks

morning talks, overview on dark matter searches and models

2 General Review about DM: evidences, candidates and searches

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)

3 Cosmological evidence for dark matter

Speaker: Tracy Slatyer (MIT)

10:30 Coffee break

Overview talks

morning talks, overview on dark matter searches and models

4 Non-WIMP dark matter

Speaker: Dr Laura Lopez Honorez (ULB)

5 Dark Matter relic density

Speaker: Jan Heisig (CP3 - UC Louvain)

12:30 Lunch

Tools talks

6 FeynRules

7 Marty and DarkPack

Speakers: Marco Palmiotto (Oslo University), Niels Fardeau (Lyon University)

15:00 Coffee break

Hands-on session

8 FeynRules

9 Marty and DarkPack

Speakers: Marco Palmiotto (Oslo University), Niels Fardeau (Lyon University)

Tuesday, 17 June

Overview talks

morning talks, overview on dark matter searches and models

10 (Some) Theoretical Considerations on Direct Dark Matter Searches

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)

11 Direct dark matter detection: where are we and where are we going?

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 Coffee break

Overview talks

morning talks, overview on dark matter searches and models

12 Indirect detection of dark matter with cosmic radiation

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)

13 Indirect detection of dark matter with cosmic-rays

Speaker: Yoann Génolini (LAPTH)

12:30 Lunch

Tools talks

14 Pythia

15 MadGraph

Speaker: Olivier Mattelaer (CP3)

15:00 Coffee break

Hands-on session

16 Pythia tutorial

17 MadGraph_aMC@NLO tutorial

Speaker: Luca Beccatini (UCLouvain and Unibo)

20:00 Social Dinner

Wednesday, 18 June

Overview talks

morning talks, overview on dark matter searches and models

18 Dark sectors at accelerators

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)

19 Dark matter searches at collider, experimental overview

Speaker: Spyros Argyropoulos (Aristotele University of Thessaloniki)

10:30 Coffee break

Overview talks

morning talks, overview on dark matter searches and models

20 Dark Matter, future directions

Speaker: Nicolao Fornengo (Unito)

21 Round table

12:30 Lunch

Tools talks

22 MadDM

Speaker: Daniele Massaro (CERN)

23 micrOMEGAs

Speaker: Andreas Goudelis (LPC)

15:00 Coffee break

Hands-on session

24 MadDM tutorial

Speaker: Gian Marco Lucchetti (Unibo)

25 micrOMEGAs tutorial

Speaker: Andreas Goudelis (Laboratoire de Physique de Clermont Auvergne (LPCA), CNRS)

Thursday, 19 June

Tools talks

26 DarkSUSY

Speaker: Torsten Bringmann (Oslo University)

Hands-on session

27 DarkSUSY tutorial

Speaker: Torsten Bringmann (Oslo University)

10:30 Coffee break

Round table: Young scientisti talks

12:30 Lunch

Hands-on session

28 PBH as dark matter

29 MadAnalysis

Speaker: Luca Panizzi (Unica)

15:00 Coffee break

Round table: Young scientist talks

30 Closing