arXiv subjects

Pierce Giffin

Publications and source records attributed to Pierce Giffin.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Exploring Invisible New Physics with Exotic Pion Decays

We study the sensitivity of past and future stopped-pion experiments to light, invisible dark sector particles produced in exotic pion decays. We consider two-body decays involving sterile neutrinos, $\pi^+ \to \ell^+ N$, as well as three-body decays $\pi^+ \to \ell^+ \nu_\ell X$, with $X$ an invisible scalar, axion-like particle, or dark vector. We recast existing limits from the PIENU experiment and project the reach of the planned PIONEER experiment using detailed simulations based on the current detector design. We find that PIONEER can improve bounds on exotic pion branching ratios by at least one order of magnitude below current limits. We compare the projected sensitivities with complementary constraints from lepton anomalous magnetic moments, mono-photon searches, and beam-dump experiments, identifying weak-violating axion-like particles as a particularly well-motivated benchmark. Our results establish PIONEER as a powerful and complementary probe of light, invisible dark sectors.

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arXiv2025

Structure Formation with Dark Magnetohydrodynamics

Long-range interactions in the dark sector can give rise to collective plasma phenomena that are capable of modifying the evolution of dark matter halos. We present the first study of gravitational collapse in a secluded dark $U(1)_D$ model using a magnetohydrodynamic description of the dark matter. We show that dark magnetic fields generate an anisotropic pressure that alters the Jeans scale and suppresses small-scale power in a direction-dependent manner. For a range of primordial magnetic spectral indices, this effect produces distinctive modifications to the linear matter power spectrum. We find that current observations cannot yet constrain viable dark magnetic fields, as CMB tensor modes mostly provide more stringent constraints. Nevertheless, forthcoming high-resolution probes of the matter power spectrum (CMB-HD lensing, HERA, and EDGES) will be able to test these predictions and are sensitive to dark charge-to-mass ratios in the range $10^{-20}\,\text{GeV}^{-1}\lesssim q_\chi/m_\chi\lesssim 10^{-14}\,\text{GeV}^{-1}$.

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arXiv2025

Simplified Spin Dependence in Dark Matter Direct Detection

The interactions of dark matter with Standard Model particles can be systematically studied in the language of effective field theories. We investigate dark matter interactions with Standard Model particles, including spin-dependent interactions, for direct detection experiments and demonstrate that, although the scattering rate generally depends on multiple types of material response functions, certain linear combinations of these material response functions vanish if the initial and final electronic states share the same Hamiltonian. We also find that several other response functions vanish in parity-symmetric materials, making these systems as simple as isotropic detectors in some respects. Finally, we present the scattering rate for an anisotropic, possibly chiral detector, for generic dark matter-electron spin interactions. These relations reduce the number of independent response functions needed, thereby simplifying the computational complexity for a broad class of dark matter models. Our results provide a complete and efficient toolkit for analyzing electron recoil signals in diverse detector materials.

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arXiv2025

Ultra-Strongly Self-Interacting Dark Matter: From Phenomenology to Astrophysical Observables

We develop a minimal, testable framework for two-component self-interacting dark matter (SIDM) in which a dominant, moderately self-interacting species coexists with an ultra-strongly self-interacting subcomponent (uSIDM). A light vector mediator induces velocity-dependent self-scattering, while early-universe dynamics - standard $2 \to 2$ annihilation supplemented by interconversion $\chi_1\chi_1 \to \chi_2\chi_2$ - determine the relic abundance analytically. From observations of dwarf and low surface brightness galaxy rotation curves, as well as strong cluster lensing, we place constraints on the microphysics parameters. From these constrained regions, we map the microphysics to effective \texttt{ETHOS} parameters and evolve the linear power spectrum in \texttt{CLASS}. We identify a region where: (1) the SIDM dominant component attains $\sigma_{\rm{eff}}/m = 20 - 40~\text{cm}^{2}\text{g}^{-1}$ at dwarf velocities while satisfying cluster upper bounds $\sigma_{\rm{eff}}/m < 0.13~\rm{cm}^{2}\rm{g}^{-1}$; (2) a subpercent uSIDM fraction drives accelerated gravothermal collapse in early halos, providing seeds relevant to high-redshift quasar formation and ``little red dots''; and (3) the small-scale cutoff in the matter power spectrum remains consistent with Lyman-$\alpha$ and satellite counts, but exhibits non-standard features, potentially discernible with future observations. The allowed space can be organized by the mediator-to-DM mass ratio and the late-time uSIDM fraction, with a narrow window singled out by the combined cosmological and astrophysical requirements.

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arXiv2024

Dark plasmas in the nonlinear regime: constraints from particle-in-cell simulations

If the dark sector possesses long-range self-interactions, these interactions can source dramatic collective instabilities even in astrophysical settings where the collisional mean free path is long. Here, we focus on the specific case of dark matter halos composed of a dark $U(1)$ gauge sector undergoing a dissociative cluster merger. We study this by performing the first dedicated particle-in-cell plasma simulations of interacting dark matter streams, tracking the growth, formation, and saturation of instabilities through both the linear and nonlinear regimes. We find that these instabilities give rise to local (dark) electromagnetic inhomogeneities that serve as scattering sites, inducing an effective dynamic collisional cross-section. Mapping this effective cross-section onto existing results from large-scale simulations of the Bullet Cluster, we extend the limit on the dark charge-to-mass ratio by over ten orders of magnitude. Our results serve as a simple example of the rich phenomenology that may arise in a dark sector with long-range interactions and motivate future dedicated study of such ``dark plasmas.''

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arXiv2022

Heavy Neutral Leptons at Beam Dump Experiments of Future Lepton Colliders

A new beam dump experiment that utilizes the beam of future high energy electron-positron colliders could be an excellent avenue to search for dark sector particles due to its unprecedented high energy and intensity. We consider heavy neutral leptons (HNLs) as a specific example to demonstrate the sensitivity of searches for dark sector particles at future electron-positron collider beam dump experiments. This includes the study of the reach at the International Linear Collider (ILC), the Cool Copper Collider ($\rm C^3$), and the Compact Linear Collider (CLIC). We comprehensively examine the HNL production and detector acceptance at these electron beam dump experiments. We show that these experiments will probe a large range of HNL parameter space, not yet probed by past experiments. These experiments will be complementary to other proposed experiments such as proton beam dump experiments, neutrino experiments, and LHC auxiliary detectors. Our study also motivates a more detailed analysis of heavy meson productions in high-energy electron-nucleon collisions in thick targets.

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arXiv2022

Neutron Star Quantum Death by Small Black Holes

Neutron stars can be destroyed by black holes at their center accreting material and eventually swallowing the entire star. Here we note that the accretion model adopted in the literature, based on Bondi accretion or variations thereof, is inadequate for small black holes -- black holes whose Schwarzschild radius is comparable to, or smaller than, the neutron's de Broglie wavelength. In this case, quantum mechanical aspects of the accretion process cannot be neglected, and give rise to a completely different accretion rate. We show that for the case of black holes seeded by the collapse of bosonic dark matter, this is the case for electroweak-scale dark matter particles. In the case of fermionic dark matter, typically the black holes that would form at the center of a neutron star are more massive, unless the dark matter particle mass is very large, larger than about 10$^{10}$ GeV. We calculate the lifetime of neutron stars harboring a ``small'' black hole, and find that black holes lighter than $\sim 10^{11}$ kg quickly evaporate, leaving no trace. More massive black holes destroy neutron stars via quantum accretion on time-scales much shorter than the age of observed neutron stars. We find that the range where seed black holes inside neutron stars are massive enough that they do not quickly evaporate away, but not so massive that a fluid accretion picture is warranted is limited to between $\sim10^{11}$ and $10^{12}$ kg, but our results are key to accurately determine the actual critical black hole mass corresponding to the onset of neutron star destruction

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arXiv2020

Higgs Production in Association with a Dark-Z at Future Electron Positron Colliders

In recent years there have been many proposals for new electron-positron colliders, such as the Circular Electron-Positron Collider, the International Linear Collider, and the Future Circular Collider in electron-positron mode. Much of the motivation for these colliders is precision measurements of the Higgs boson and searches for new electroweak states. Hence, many of these studies are focused on energies above the $h\,Z$ threshold. However, there are proposals to run these colliders at the lower $WW$ threshold and $Z$-pole energies. In this paper, we propose a new search for Higgs physics accessible at lower energies: $e^+e^-\rightarrow h\,Z_d$, where $Z_d$ is a new light gauge boson such as a dark photon or dark-$Z$. Such searches can be conducted at the $WW$ threshold, i.e. energies below the $h\,Z$ threshold where exotic Higgs decays can be searched for in earnest. Additionally, due to very good angular and energy resolution at future electron-positron colliders, these searches will be sensitive to $Z_d$ masses below 1 GeV, which is lower than the current direct LHC searches. We will show that at $\sqrt{s}=160$ GeV with 10 ab$^{-1}$, a search for $e^+e^-\rightarrow h\,Z_d$ is sensitive to $h-Z-Z_d$ couplings of $δ\sim 8\times 10^{-3}$ and cross sections of $\sim 1-2$ ab for $Z_d$ masses below 1 GeV. The results are similar at $\sqrt{s}=240$ GeV with 5 ab$^{-1}$.

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