Newly Proposed Particle May Explain Why No One Has Detected Dark Matter

A newly proposed particle may be able to explain why no one has managed to detect dark matter. Scientists have found that this particle, if it exists, would interact strongly with normal matter and may solve the mystery of dark matter.

Dark matter is thought to exist because of its gravitational effects on stars and galaxies, gravitational lensing around these and through its imprint of the Cosmic Microwave Background. Despite this indirect evidence, though, researchers have yet to directly detect dark matter. This new particle, though, may explain why.

The newly proposed particle has a mass of 100eV/c^2, which is only about .02 percent that of an electron. While it doesn't interact with light, it does interact strongly with normal matter; in fact, it may not even penetrate Earth's atmosphere. This means that Earth-bound detection isn't likely. In other words, researchers will have to set up experimentation in space to detect dark matter.

"This work brings together some very different areas of physics: theoretical particle physics, observational x-ray astronomy, and experimental quantum optics," said James Bateman, one of the researchers, in a news release. "Our candidate particle sounds crazy, but currently there seem to be no experiments or observations which could rule it out. Dark matter is one of the most important unsolved problems in modern physics, and we hope that our suggestion will inspire others to develop detailed particle theory and even experimental tests."

The findings may explain why dark matter has yet to be directly detected. At the moment, experiments on dark matter at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN have yet to succeed. This may be the time to shift experiments toward alternative candidates for dark matter.

"Also from this point of view, the paper comprises a milestone on the history of our department: for the first time there has been a publication involving authors from all three groups in physics and astronomy, which shows how valuable it can be to cross boundaries and to look beyond one's own field," said Bateman.

The findings are published in the journal Scientific Reports.

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