New avenues are called for to solve the mystery of what is the dark matter in the Universe. The WIMP paradigm remains the best tested scenario of dark matter, but searches for new physics at the electroweak scale have come up empty-handed to-date. By 2019 the LHC will have comprehensively probed the TeV-scale, and ton-scale direct detection experiments will improve the to WIMP-nucleus scattering by an order of magnitude, probing deeply into the Higgs- mediated regime. It is essential for the field to diversify and be prepared in case of further null results.  

Dark matter in the keV-GeV mass range is an exciting theoretical possibility, and is one that has become the focus of activity only in the recent past. A number of proposals have been put forward for new methods to detect light dark matter (neutrino beams and underground accelerators, electron scattering, semi- and superconducting targets, Bremsstrahlung emission, defects in crystals, among many others), and new theoretical scenarios have been entertained for the dynamics in the early Universe and their non-gravitational interactions in astrophysical environments today (Forbidden DM, SIMP DM, Impeded DM, etc.).  

The workshop shall act as a forum for theorists and experimentalists to discuss searches, theories, results, opportunities, and, in general, new ideas for sub-GeV Dark Matter. It will hence be a meeting that focuses on models and regions in parameter space that are overlooked by the standard WIMP studies, and that may open a new window into the dark sector.

Workshop: STRONG-DM 2019, August 5 - 16, 2019
Schedule Week 1 (pdf) 

Conference: Light Dark World International Forum 2019, August 12 - 13, 2019

Schedule Week 2 (pdf)

For questions regarding the workshop please contact Josef Pradler, HEPHY, josef.pradler@oeaw.ac.at