Dark matter is the “ Carmen Sandiego / Where ’s Waldo ? ” of the natural philosophy world . We know it is there but we just ca n’t seem to recover it .
And that ’s the caseful again with this latest test . TheLarge Underground Xenon(LUX ) dark issue experiment has nail its terminal 20 - calendar month - foresighted search and , unfortunately , has not found any dark matter particles .
This is a bit unsatisfying , but even a non - detection is of import when it comes to physics . The detectors could only look for potential particles in a sure aggregated chain . So , if dark matter is really made of particles , they must reside beyond that range .
“ The discovery of the nature of the elusive morose affair that accounts for more than four - fifth of the mass of the macrocosm is internationally recognised as one of the high priorities in skill , and the LUX experiment is the world - head experiment in the direct search of it , ” explained UCL LUX collaboration scientist Dr Cham Ghag in astatement .
“ Though a electropositive signal would have been welcome , nature was not so kind ! withal , a void result is significant as it change the landscape of the athletic field by constraining models for what dark matter could be beyond anything that existed previously . ”
The beingness of dark matter can explain a lot of features of the population , like how a spiral beetleweed disk rotates at the same speed at the center and at the edge . Alternative hypothesis have been put fore but , so far , dark matter is the most likely explanation .
But even within the drab matter paradigm , there are different explanations . Dark matter could be many different type of particles ( or in some scenarios evenblack holes ) so even with a non - discovery LUX has effectively move out many potential campaigner from the playing field .
The collaboration will continue to investigate the data , providing a solid analysis of the scope germ that will then be used in the next detectorLUX - ZEPLIN(LZ ) presently under construction . LZ will be at least 70 clip more tender than LUX .
“ We ’re responsible for ensuring the LZ experiment is constructed to unprecedented radio - purity requirements that limit background to extremely low horizontal surface so as to let out any signal from WIMPs hiding underneath , ” say Dr Jim Dobson also from UCL . “ We must also accurately characterize the background pulses that do stay because before we can say we have detected WIMPs , we must get laid precisely what we expect from everything else . This will be crucial to ensure any next find of dark topic are valid . ”
