Searching in the dark: the hunt for the dark photon

Understand

The existence of Dark Matter (DM) is a well established fact since many decades, thanks to the observation of the effects of its gravitational interaction with the ordinary matter in the Universe.

• However, our knowledge of the Dark Matter features is still rather scarce.
• Indeed, one of the biggest quests in fundamental science today is the investigation of Dark Matter nature, from its origin to its composition, and the way its constituents interact with the ordinary matter, apart from gravity.
• Huge and ambitious efforts have been spent in the last years into its identification, concentrating especially on the search of viable Weakly Interacting Massive Particle candidates.