The nature of dark matter continues to perplex astronomers. As the look for dark matter particles continues to turn up nothing, its appealing to toss out the dark matter model completely, however indirect evidence for the things continues to be strong. What is it? One group has an idea, and theyve published the outcomes of their first search.
The conditions of dark matter suggest that it cant be regular matter. Routine matter (atoms, particles, and so on) easily takes in and produces light. Even if dark matter were clouds of particles so cold they emitted nearly no light, they would still show up by the light they absorb. They would resemble dark nebula typically seen near the stellar aircraft. But there arent nearly enough of them to account for the effects of dark matter we observe. Weve likewise eliminated neutrinos. They do not communicate strongly with light, but neutrinos are a form of “hot” dark matter since neutrinos move at nearly the speed of light. We understand that the majority of dark matter must be slow, and therefore “cold.” So if dark matter is out there, it needs to be something else.
In this newest work, the authors argue that dark matter might be made of particles understood as scalar bosons. All known matter can be put in 2 large categories known as fermions and bosons. Any particle with a spin of 0 is a scalar boson.
Quarks and leptons are fermions, while force carriers are bosons. Credit: Fermilab
While it appears like a trivial distinction, the 2 kinds of particles act extremely differently when brought together in big groups. Bosons, on the other hand, are perfectly happy inhabiting the very same state. If you supercool a lot of bosons (such as helium-4) they can settle into a weird quantum item understood as a Bose-Einstein condensate.
The Higgs cant be dark matter offered its known residential or commercial properties, but some theories propose other scalar bosons. Possibly dark matter is made of large scattered clouds of scalar bosons.
Illustration of a quark core in a neutron star. Credit: Jyrki Hokkanen, CSC– IT Center for Science
It turns out that given that scalar bosons engage gravitationally, they likewise interact with gravitational waves. As a result, scalar bosons could develop long-lasting gravitational waves that have a comparable frequency. There are also no cold and old scalar boson clouds within 3,000 light-years of Earth.
This study doesnt rule out scalar bosons completely, but it does put some strong limitations on the idea. And right now that seems to be the story of dark matter. In our search to find what it is, we continue to learn what it is not.
Originally released on Universe Today.
For more on this research, see Ghostly Boson Clouds Could Solve the Mystery of Dark Matter.
As the search for dark matter particles continues to turn up absolutely nothing, its appealing to throw out the dark matter design completely, but indirect evidence for the things continues to be strong. The conditions of dark matter indicate that it cant be regular matter. In this newest work, the authors argue that dark matter might be made of particles understood as scalar bosons. The Higgs cant be dark matter given its known homes, however some theories propose other scalar bosons. Possibly dark matter is made of big scattered clouds of scalar bosons.