When scientists observe the cosmos, they see stars whizzing around their galaxies faster than the laws of physics should allow and clusters of galaxies attracting each other too strongly. They theorize that something must be producing more gravity than all the visible matter in existence could explain — but whatever the substance is, it’s invisible. Dark matter is, effectively, a placeholder: A well-documented hole in our understanding of the universe.
Researchers have floated numerous theories to explain what dark matter might be, but to date, no experiment has turned up compelling evidence to support any of them. An international team of physicists is now working on a new kind of dark matter detector with the goal of capturing the first direct observation of the puzzling material. Results from the detector’s prototype have already ruled out one of the leading theories of how dark matter originated.
The new research was published August 13 in Physical Review Letters.
“DAMIC-M may be our best shot to answer the dark matter question in the coming years,” said Alvaro Chavarria, a University of Washington associate professor of physics and detector lead for the DAMIC-M (DArk Matter In CCDs at Modane) international collaboration, which conducted this study.
Read more at UW News