Searching for sub-GeV dark matter

Abstract

The non-observation of evidence for conventional dark matter candidates such as WIMPs has led to a growing interest in less explored mass ranges. In this talk I will give an overview of the phenomenology of sub-GeV dark matter. I will explain how we can use cosmology as a guiding principle to identify interesting models, featuring for example resonant or forbidden annihilations or inelastic scattering. I will then discuss how to probe these models in laboratory experiments, with a focus on searches for long-lived particles in high-intensity accelerators like Belle II and searches for electron recoils in underground experiments like XENON1T.