The search for new, sub-GeV particles has become the center of much interest. In a first part, I will consider light dark states that share a direct coupling with the photon through higher dimensional operators (“photon portal”). The prospects of detecting such states at the intensity frontier will be confronted with low-energy precision tests as well as with cosmological and astrophysical observables.

In a second part, I will discuss recent progress in our understanding of prompt electron ionization in dark matter nuclear scattering (“Migdal effect”) which allows to extend the direct detection sensitivity of conventional WIMP experiments into the sub-GeV mass region.