3rd General Meeting of COST Action COSMIC WISPers (CA21106)

9 Sept 2025, 08:15 → 12 Sept 2025, 23:20 Europe/Sofia

Sofia University Main Building (Sofia, Bulgaria)

Venelin Kozhuharov (Univerity of Sofia "St. Kl. Ohridski" & LNF-INFN), Alessandro Mirizzi (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare)

Axions and other very weakly interacting slim (m < GeV) particles (WISPs) are easily accommodated in several extensions of the Standard Model of Particle Physics. Searches for WISPs are strongly motivated by our attempts to understand the nature of the dark matter and puzzling astrophysical and particle physics observations. 

 The aim of the COST Action COSMIC WISPers (CA21106) is to coordinate and support WISPs searches in a synergic way at the boundary between particle physics, astrophysics and cosmology. 

The CA21106 3rd General Meeting will be held in Bulgaria. The objective of  the meeting is to review the status of the activities performed by the different Working Groups and to discuss the further directions of investigations. 

The Management Committee Meeting will take place in the afternoon of Friday 12th September.

 

POSTER-CosmicWISPers-Sofia.pdf

TIMETABLE-CosmicWISPers-Sofia.pdf

Tuesday 9 September

08:15 → 09:00 Registration

09:00 → 09:20 Welcome to CA21106 General Meeting

Conveners: Alessandro Mirizzi (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare), Georgi Rainovski (Dean of the Faculty of Physics, Sofia University)

General meeting_sofia.pdf

09:20 → 10:40 WG1 (Theory)

09:20 CP, or not CP, that is the question

Speaker: Andreas Ringwald (DESY)

cp_or_not_cp_ringwald_cost_sofia.pdf

10:00 Open string axiverse

Speaker: Giovanni Villadoro

2025-Sofia.pdf

10:40 → 11:00 Coffee break

11:00 → 13:00 WG1 (Theory)

11:00 Testing interactions in a scalar dark sector

Speaker: Elsa Teixeira

CosmicWISPers_Teixeira.key

CosmicWISPers_Teixeira.pdf

11:40 The Thorium-229 revolution: nuclear clocks as quintessometers

Speaker: Cedric Delaunay (LAPTh)

quintessometers_cosmic.pdf

12:20 Axion Quality: Challenges and Pathways to Improvement

Speaker: Federico Mescia

Mescia_2025.pdf

14:30 → 15:30 Round Table

Sofia_COST_2025.pdf

14:30 WG1 Report

Speaker: Michele Cicoli (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare)

Cicoli_WG1.pdf

15:00 Discussion

15:30 → 16:30 WG1 (Theory)

15:30 Topological Portals to the Dark Sector

Speaker: Nudzeim Selimovic (INFN Padova)

CA21106_N_Selimovic.pdf

16:00 Cosmic superstrings in large volume compactifications

Speaker: Gonzalo Villa (DAMTP - University of Cambridge)

GV-Cosmic-superstrings.pdf

15:30 → 16:30 WG2 (Dark matter & Cosmology)

15:30 Scalar Fields with Quadratic Couplings to Matter around Cavities

Speaker: Angus Macdonald (University of Nottingham)

Impact of Cavities on the Detection of Quadratically Coupled Ultra-Light Dark Matter

15:50 Dark Matter Freeze-In and Small-Scale Observables: Novel Mass Bounds and Viable Particle Candidates

Speaker: Alessandro Lenoci (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

DM_freeze_in_LENOCI.pdf

16:10 Constraining ALPs with Cosmic Microwave Background Polarization Birefringence

Speaker: Matteo Galaverni (Vatican Observatory & INAF/OAS Bologna)

Galaverni_Sept25_Sofia.pdf

16:30 → 16:50 Coffee Break

16:50 → 18:10 WG1 (Theory)

16:50 Growth of cosmic strings with field-dependent tension

Speaker: Luca Brunelli (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare)

Brunelli_Sofia.pdf

17:20 Cosmic strings and domain walls of the QCD quark condensate with and without a hidden axion

Speaker: Anja Stuhlfauth (Max Planck Institute for Physics)

AnjaStuhlfauthCosmicWISPers2025.pdf

16:50 → 18:20 WG2 (Dark matter & Cosmology)

17:10 Dark matter production from axion portal

Speaker: Tommaso Sassi (INFN Sezione di Firenze, Università degli Studi di Firenze)

TALK_SASSI.pdf

17:30 Emission of spin-2 Particles from the Sun

Speaker: Camilo Garcia Cely (IFIC (CSIC-University of Valencia))

GarciaCely_Sofia_CosmicWispers.pdf

17:50 WISP Dark Matter: What's Missing?

Speaker: María Benito (Tartu Observatory, University of Tartu)

18:30 → 20:00 Welcome reception

Wednesday 10 September

09:30 → 10:50 WG3 (Astrophysics)

09:30 X-ray observations and their applications to the physics of axions (or other WISPs)

Speaker: Jaime Ruz

COST3rdGeneralMeeting_JRA.pdf

10:10 Axion superradiance

Speaker: Francesca Chadha-Day (IPPP, Durham University)

Superradiance.pdf

10:50 → 11:20 Coffee break

11:20 → 12:40 WG3 (Astrophysics)

11:20 Radio observations and their applications to the physics of axions (or other WISPs)

Speaker: Marco Regis (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare)

Regis_COST_2025.pdf

12:00 Theoretical progress on SN axions.

Speaker: Konstantin Springmann (TU Munich)

COST_Seminar_KS_Sofia.pdf

14:30 → 15:30 Round Table

Sofia_COST_2025.pdf

14:30 WG3 Report

Speakers: Giuseppe Lucente (SLAC), Maurizio Giannotti

WG3_Report.pdf

15:00 Discussion

15:30 → 16:30 WG3 (Astrophysics)

15:30 X-ray Searches for Axions: The M82 and Betelgeuse Case Studies

Speaker: Francisco Candon

Slides_Xrays_FRC.pdf

Slides_Xrays_FRC.pptm

15:50 Probing axion-like particles with multimessenger observations of neutron star mergers

Speaker: Francesca Lecce

Presentation Lecce Sofia.pdf

16:10 Axion production and conversion in astrophysical transients

Speaker: Ángel Gil Muyor

Sofia_Cosmic_Wispers_3rd_General_Meeting___Presentation.pdf

15:30 → 16:30 WG4 (Experiments)

15:30 ARCHIMEDES experiment

Speaker: Domenico D’Urso

Archimedes_ddurso_2025.pdf

15:50 Recent Developments in Axion Detection with MADMAX

Speaker: Anton Ivanov

Sofia_COST_2025_AEI_publish.pdf

16:10 Bridging nuclear physics and neutron stars at the LHC

Speaker: Dimitar Mihaylov

Mihaylov_WISPers2025_v3.pdf

16:30 → 17:00 Coffee break

17:00 → 18:20 WG3 (Astrophysics)

17:00 Relaxing supernova constraints: how nucleophobic axions survive finite-density corrections.

Speaker: Vincenzo Fiorentino

Fiorentino_2025.pdf

17:20 Probing axion-like particles with very-high-energy gamma rays: Insights from MAGIC and LST-1

Speaker: Ivana Batkovic

3rdCostActionGM-ALPs_with_IACTs-Batkovic_v2.pdf

17:40 Sensitivity of CTAO to axion-like particles from blazars: a machine learning approach

Speaker: Francesco Schiavone

Schiavone_3rd_CosmicWISPers_GM_v2.pdf

18:00 Probing Ultralight Scalars through Compact Stars and Precision Tests of Gravity

Speaker: Tanmoy Poddar

Cost-GM-talk-f.pdf

17:00 → 18:20 WG4 (Experiments)

17:00 Precision test of fundamental physics with matter wave interferometers

Speaker: Nicola Poli (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare)

SofiaPoli2025_finale.pdf

17:20 Hunting for Dark Matter using Levitated Superconductors

Speaker: Jackson Fowler

Cosmis WISPers COST general meeting2.pptx

Thursday 11 September

09:30 → 10:50 WG2 (Dark matter & Cosmology)

09:30 New Opportunities for Ultralight DM Search with Stochastic Fluctuations

Speaker: Hyungjin Kim

Kim_COST_Sep2025.pdf

10:10 Cosmological tests of the nature of dark matter

Speaker: Keir Rogers

10:50 → 11:20 Coffee break

11:20 → 12:40 WG2 (Dark matter & Cosmology)

11:20 Cracks in the Standard Cosmological Model: Anomalies, Tensions, and Hints of New Physics

Speaker: Eleonora Di Valentino (University of Sheffield)

divalentino.pdf

12:00 Gravitational probes of ultralight dark matter

Speaker: Kfir Blum

WISPS Sofia 2025-2.pdf

14:30 → 15:30 Round Table

Sofia_COST_2025.pdf

14:30 WG2 Report

Speakers: María Benito (Tartu Observatory, University of Tartu), Mathieu Kaltschmidt (CAPA, Universidad de Zaragoza)

WG2_Report_GM3_Sofia.pdf

15:00 Discussion

15:30 → 17:00 Technology Forum

15:30 Advances in optomechanics

Speaker: Nenad Kralj

Adv_OM_Kralj.pdf

16:00 Satellites & Space Missions

Speakers: Lubomir Toshev (EnduroSat), Viktor Danchev (CTO EnduroSat)

CA2025.pdf

CA2025.pptx

16:30 Magnetometry: from single measurements to network of magnetometers

Speaker: Boyan Benev (Benev Science & Technology Ltd)

Magnetometry.pdf

Magnetometry.pptx

17:00 → 17:30 Coffee break

18:00 → 19:30 WG5 (Dissemination and Outreach): Public talk

250911_DarkMatter_KDimitrova_CostMeetingPublicTalk.pdf

18:00 Public talk: COSMIC WISPers in the Dark Universe

Speakers: Kalina Dimitrova, Venelin Kozhuharov

250911_DarkMatter_KDimitrova_CostMeetingPublicTalk.pdf

20:00 → 22:00 Official dinner

Please fill in the participation and meal selection survey

Friday 12 September

09:00 → 10:20 WG4 (Experiments)

09:00 Preliminary ALPs sensitivity projections for the RES-NOVA Observatory

Speaker: Nahuel Ferreiro Iachellini

cwmeeting.pdf

09:40 Probing new physics with slow and trapped molecules

Speaker: Steven Hoekstra (University of Groningen, and Nikhef, The Netherlands)

Sofia Cosmic Wispers 12 sept 2025 Hoekstra.pdf

10:20 → 10:40 Coffee break

10:40 → 12:00 WG4 (Experiments)

10:40 WISPFI experiment

Speaker: Marios Maroudas

Maroudas - WISPFI.pdf

11:20 PADME Experiment

Speaker: Elisa Di Meco

PADME_CostAction_DiMeco.pdf

12:00 → 12:40 Round Table

Sofia_COST_2025.pdf

12:00 WG4 report

Speaker: Marin Karuza (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare)

Sofia_COST_2025.pdf

12:40 → 13:20 Concluding talk

12:40 Axions explain the formation of supermassive black holes at cosmic dawn

Speaker: Pierre Sikivie

Sofia2025.pdf

13:20 → 13:30 Conclusions

acknowledgments_sofia.pdf

15:00 → 17:00 Management Committee Meeting

15:00 CA21106 Introduction

Speaker: Alessandro Mirizzi (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare)

agenda-E-COST-MEETING-CA21106-020925-a78394fb-3.docx

MC4.pdf

WBP-AGA-CA21106-4_18227-2.pdf

15:20 WG1 report

Speaker: Michele Cicoli (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare)

Cicoli_WG1_Report.pdf

15:40 WG2 Report

Speakers: María Benito (Tartu Observatory, University of Tartu), Mathieu Kaltschmidt (CAPA, Universidad de Zaragoza)

WG2report_SofiaMeeting.pdf

16:00 WG3 Report

Speaker: Maurizio Giannotti

WG3_Report.pdf

16:20 WG4 report

Speaker: Marin Karuza (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare)

Sofia_COST_2025.pdf

16:40 WG5 report

Speakers: Loredana gastaldo (Kirchhoff Institute for Physics, Heidelberg University), Olga Requejo

outreach.pdf

17:00 → 17:20 Coffee break

17:20 → 19:30 Management Committee Meeting

17:20 Grant awarding coordinator report

Speaker: Venelin Kozhuharov (Univerity of Sofia "St. Kl. Ohridski" & LNF-INFN)

2025-09-12-GrantAwardingCommittee-1.pdf

17:40 ECI Committee Report

Speaker: Marta Fuentes Zamoro

ECI_report.pdf

18:00 Report from Gender and Diversity Advisor

Speaker: Deniz Sunar Cerci

COST_21106_MCMeeting_12092025.pdf

18:20 Draft of W&B Plan 2026

Speaker: Alessandro Mirizzi (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare)