May 7, 2024

Physicists Have Developed a Method for Predicting the Composition of Dark Matter

” Experiments that look for dark matter are not the only method to get more information about this mysterious type of matter,” states Cara Giovanetti, a Ph.D. student in New York Universitys Department of Physics and the lead author of the paper..
” Precision measurements of various criteria of the universe– for example, the quantity of helium in deep space, or the temperature levels of various particles in the early universe– can also teach us a lot about dark matter,” includes Giovanetti, detailing the approach described in the Physical Review Letters paper.
In the research study, the physicists concentrated on huge bang nucleosynthesis (BBN)– a procedure by which light forms of matter, such as helium, hydrogen, and lithium, are created. The existence of unnoticeable dark matter affects how each of these elements will form. Also vital to these phenomena is the cosmic microwave background (CMB)– electro-magnetic radiation, created by combining electrons and protons, that remained after deep spaces development. The work was conducted with Hongwan Liu, an NYU postdoctoral fellow, Joshua Ruderman, an associate professor in NYUs Department of Physics, and Princeton physicist Mariangela Lisanti, Giovanetti, and her co-authors.
The team of researchers looked for a means to find the existence of a particular category of dark matter– that with a mass between that of the electron and the proton– by producing models that took into account both BBN and CMB.
” Such dark matter can modify the abundances of certain aspects produced in the early universe and leave an imprint in the cosmic microwave background by modifying how rapidly the universe broadens,” Giovanetti explains..
In their research study, the team made predictions of cosmological signatures linked to the presence of particular forms of dark matter. These signatures are the outcome of dark matter altering the temperature levels of various particles or altering how fast the universe broadens..
Their results showed that dark matter that is too light will cause various amounts of light aspects than what astrophysical observations see..
” Lighter forms of dark matter might make the universe expand so quickly that these elements dont have a possibility to form,” says Giovanetti, laying out one scenario.
” We discover from our analysis that some models of dark matter cant have a mass thats too little, otherwise deep space would look different from the one we observe,” she includes.
Reference: “Joint Cosmic Microwave Background and Big Bang Nucleosynthesis Constraints on Light Dark Sectors with Dark Radiation” by Cara Giovanetti, Mariangela Lisanti, Hongwan Liu and Joshua T. Ruderman, 6 July 2022, Physical Review Letters.DOI: 10.1103/ PhysRevLett.129.021302.
The research was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (DGE1839302, PHY-1915409, PHY-1554858, PHY-1607611) and the Department of Energy (DE-SC0007968).

An artists rendition of huge bang nucleosynthesis, the early universe period in which protons “p” and neutrons “n” integrate to form light components. The existence of dark matter “χ” modifications just how much of each aspect will form. Credit: Image thanks to Cara Giovanetti/New York University
A new analysis provides an ingenious methods to predict cosmological signatures for models of dark matter.
An approach for anticipating the composition of dark matter has been developed by a team of physicists. Dark matter is unnoticeable matter spotted only by its gravitational pull on common matter and whose discovery has been long looked for by scientists..
The new work centers on predicting “cosmological signatures” for designs of dark matter with a mass in between that of the proton and the electron. Previous methods had forecasted similar signatures for easier designs of dark matter. This research study develops new ways to discover these signatures in more intricate models, which experiments continue to search for, the papers authors note. The paper was released on July 6 in the journal Physical Review Letters.

The presence of dark matter “χ” changes how much of each aspect will form. The brand-new work centers on forecasting “cosmological signatures” for designs of dark matter with a mass in between that of the electron and the proton. Previous techniques had predicted comparable signatures for easier models of dark matter. The presence of undetectable dark matter impacts how each of these components will form.