Title: Interacting Dark Energy after DESI Baryon Acoustic Oscillation measurements

Abstract: We investigate the implications of the Baryon Acoustic Oscillation measurements released by the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) for Interacting Dark Energy (IDE) models characterized by an energy-momentum flow from Dark Matter to Dark Energy. By combining Planck-2018 and DESI data, we observe a preference for interactions exceeding the 95% confidence level, yielding a present-day expansion rate $H_0=71.4\pm1.5$ km/s/Mpc, in agreement with SH0ES. This preference remains robust when including measurements of the expansion rate $H(z)$ obtained from the relative ages of massive, early-time, and passively-evolving galaxies, as well as when considering distance moduli measurements from Type-Ia Supernovae sourced from the Pantheon-plus catalog using the SH0ES Cepheid host distances as calibrators. Overall, high and low redshift data can be equally or better explained within the IDE framework compared to $\Lambda$CDM, while also yielding higher values of $H_0$ in better agreement with the local distance ladder estimate.