A team of physicist at the University of Cambridge suspects that dark vigour may have muddled final result from theXENON1 T experiment , a serial of belowground vats of xenon that are being used to search for gloomy matter .
Dark matter and dark energy are two of the most discuss predicament of contemporaneous physics . The two darks are procurator names for mysterious somethings that seem to be affecting the behavior of the universe and the material in it . Dark matter denote to the seemingly invisible mass that only makes itself known through its gravitative effects . Dark zip refer to the as - yet unexplained reason for the universe ’s accelerating expansion . Dark subject is think to make up about 27 % of the universe of discourse , while dark vigor is 68%,according to NASA .
Physicists have some ideas to explain dark matter : axions , WIMPs , SIMPs , and aboriginal black holes , to name a few . But dark Energy Department is a mint more enigmatic , and now a group of researchers working on XENON1 T data says an unexpected excess of activity could be due to that unknown force , rather than any dark subject candidate . The squad ’s inquiry waspublishedthis workweek in Physical Review D.
The XENON1T Time Projection Chamber TPC in a clean room.Photo:XENON1T / Purdue University
The XENON1 T experiment , buried below Italy ’s Apennine Mountains , is set up to be as far away from any noise as possible . It consist of vats of fluid xenon that will illuminate up if interact with by a passing particle . Aspreviously reported by Gizmodo , in June 2020 the XENON1 T team report that the labor was check more interaction than it ought to be under the Standard Model of physics , meaning that it could be detecting theorized subatomic speck like axions — or something could be screwy with the experimentation .
“ These sorts of excesses are often flukes , but once in a while they can also lead to fundamental discoveries , ” said Luca Visinelli , a researcher at Frascati National Laboratories in Italy and a co - author of the study , in a University of Cambridgerelease . “ We explored a model in which this signal could be attributable to dark Department of Energy , rather than the dark issue the experimentation was in the first place invent to detect . ”
“ We first require to make love that this was n’t simply a trematode worm , ” Visinelli tally . “ If XENON1 T really saw something , you ’d await to see a standardized excess again in future experiments , but this time with a much impregnable sign . ”
Despite constituting so much of the universe , dark vim has not yet been identify . Many models propose that there may be some 5th force out besides the known four know central military unit in the universe , one that is hidden until you get to some of the large - scale phenomenon , like the population ’s ever - quick expansion .
Axions shooting out of the Sun seemed a potential account for the excess signaling , but there were holes in that theme , as it would ask a re - think of what we know about sensation . “ Even our Sun would not check with the best theoretical models and experiment as well as it does now , ” one researchertold Gizmodo last year .
Part of the problem with front for dark energy are “ Chamaeleon particle ” ( also cognise as solar axions or solar chameleons ) , so - call for their theorized ability to alter in mass based on the amount of matter around them . That would make the particles ’ mass larger when passing through a dense physical object like Earth and would make their force on wall masses humble , asNew Atlas explain in 2019 . The recent research team make a model that useschameleon screeningto probehow dark Energy Department behaveson scales well beyond that of the dense local universe .
“ Our Chamaeleon screening shuts down the product of dark Energy Department particles in very dense objects , forfend the problems face up by solar axions , ” said track author Sunny Vagnozzi , a cosmologist at Cambridge ’s Kavli Institute for Cosmology , in a universityrelease . “ It also appropriate us to decouple what happens in the local very obtuse Universe from what happens on the largest scales , where the density is extremely low . ”
The model allowed the squad to empathize how XENON1 T would behave if the blue vigor were bring out in a magnetically warm area of the Sun . Their calculations indicated that dark push could be detected with XENON1T.
Since the overabundance was first discovered , the XENON1 T team “ tried in any way to destroy it , ” as one researchertold The New York Times . The sign ’s obstinacy is as perplexing as it is thrill .
“ The authors propose an exciting and interesting possibility to extend the orbit of the sorry matter detection experiments towards the lineal detection of dark energy , ” Zara Bagdasarian , a physicist at UC Berkeley who was unaffiliated with the recent paper , severalise Gizmodo in an email . “ The case study of XENON1 T excess is by all odds not conclusive , and we have to hold back for more data point from more experiments to test the robustness of the solar chameleons idea . ”
The next genesis of XENON1 T , call XENONnT , is slated to have its first observational runslater this year . Upgrades to the experiment will hopefully seal off out any noise and help physicists home in on what on the dot is messing with the subterranean detector .
More : What Is Dark Matter and Why Has n’t Anyone rule It Yet ?
Dark matterParticle physicsPhysical sciencesPhysics
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