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A team of physicists and astronomers at the University of Southampton are proposing a completely new type of fundamental particle that may hold the key to unravelling the mysteries behind dark matter.
Dark matter cannot be seen by telescopes, yet it is believed to compose up to 85 percent of the Universe's mass. Its existence is attributed to its gravitational effects on stars and galaxies.
In findings published in Scientific Reports, researchers are proposing that dark matter particles might actually be lighter than previously thought, with a mass of only 0.02 percent of an electron. They also discovered that while this fundamental particle did not interact with light like regular dark matter, it did interact strongly with normal matter. "Our candidate particle sounds crazy, but currently there seem to be no experiments or observations which could rule it out," said coauthor of the study James Bateman from the University of Southampton. "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 researchers' work brings together different areas of physics such as; theoretical particle physics, observational x-ray astronomy, and experimental quantum optics.
The researchers assert that unlike other candidates, this new light-weight particle may not even penetrate Earth's atmosphere. So they've set their sights on a space experiment planned by the Macroscopic quantum resonators (MAQRO) consortium.
A nanoparticle, suspended in space and exposed directly to the flow of dark matter, will be pushed downstream.
Sensitive monitoring of this particle's position will shed light on the nature of this "crazy" dark matter particle, and reveal if it even exists. "At the moment, experiments on dark matter do not point into a clear direction and, given that the Large Hadron Collider at CERN has not found any signs of new physics yet, it may be time that we shift our paradigm towards alternative candidates for dark matter," stated Alexander Merle, coauthor of the study, who works at the Max Planck Institute in Munich, Germany. "More and more particle physicists seem to think this way, and our proposal seems to be a serious competitor on the market."
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
