Particle nature of dark matter

Determine the particle nature of dark matter by identifying its mass, quantum numbers, and interaction strengths with Standard Model states.

Background

The authors list the dark matter problem as one of the key open questions motivating physics beyond the Standard Model. Understanding the microphysical properties of dark matter remains central to particle physics and cosmology.

The muon collider PDF-based strategy introduced in the paper is presented as a new indirect avenue that could, in principle, probe light, weakly-coupled sectors relevant to dark matter models through deviations in parton evolution and kinematics.

References

Among these are the apparent unnaturalness of the electroweak scale, the particle nature of dark matter (DM), and the origin of the observed flavor hierarchies. These open problems suggest the existence of new physics beyond the SM (BSM) and have motivated extensive theoretical and experimental efforts to uncover it.

— On the Run from the Dark Side of the Muon  (2602.16771 - Asadi et al., 18 Feb 2026) in Section 1 (Introduction)