Searching for Dark Matter with ANAIS-112 and COSINE-100: WIMPs to WISPs

by Dr Sophia Hollick (University of Zaragoza)

Monday 30 Mar 2026, 14:30 → 16:30 Europe/Rome

A. Rostagni meeting room

The evidence for the existence of dark matter from astrophysical and cosmological observations is strong. However, there has not been a conclusive direct detection of dark matter that does not rely on gravitational interaction with visible matter. One experiment, DAMA/LIBRA, has claimed to have observed an annual modulation signal in sodium-iodide-based detectors consistent with that expected from dark matter; this signal has persisted since their initial discovery claim in 1997. COSINE-100 and ANAIS-112, two leading sodium-iodide dark matter experiments, were designed to test DAMA’s claim directly using the same target material. Respectively located in Canfranc Underground Laboratory in Spain and Yangyang Underground Laboratory in South Korea, the two experiments have achieved a combined exposure of approximately 1 ton*year. By performing a search between the two experiments, we have been able to test DAMA/LIBRA with sufficient statistical significance. In this talk, I will share the results of our combined search as well as show how in ANAIS-112 we are expanding on the concept of the annual modulation to search for solar WISPs.