Light Dark Matter: Perspectives and Prospects from Theory, Accelerators , Direct Detection, and Cosmology

In the quest to identify the dark matter (DM), the possibility that it is made of particles similar in mass to the electron or proton has garnered great attention in recent years. This framework allows standard thermal freeze-out of DM, which motivates a sharp and accessible milestone in interaction strength; at the same time, broader possibilities for the DM origin motivate a wealth of distinctive signals of DM in accelerators, direct detection, and cosmological probes. I will highlight new and exciting opportunities in each of these directions, and discuss several aspects of their complementarity.