A global group of researchers with essential involvement from the PRISMA+ Cluster of Excellence at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) and the Helmholtz Institute Mainz (HIM) has actually published for the very first time extensive data on the look for dark matter using an around the world network of optical magnetometers. According to the researchers, dark matter fields should produce a characteristic signal pattern that can be found by associated measurements at multiple stations of the GNOME network. Analysis of data from a one-month continuous GNOME operation has not yet yielded a matching indication. The measurement permits to create restrictions on the attributes of dark matter, as the scientists report in the distinguished journal Nature Physics.
With GNOME, the scientists especially want to advance the search for dark matter– one of the most amazing challenges of basic physics in the 21st century. It has long been understood that lots of perplexing huge observations, such as the rotation speed of stars in galaxies or the spectrum of the cosmic background radiation, can best be discussed by dark matter.
Sketch of the around the world GNOME network. Credit: Hector Masia Roig.
” Extremely light bosonic particles are thought about one of the most appealing prospects for dark matter today. These consist of so-called axion-like particles– ALPs for brief,” said Professor Dr. Dmitry Budker, professor at PRISMA+ and at HIM, an institutional collaboration of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt. “They can likewise be considered as a classical field oscillating with a certain frequency. A peculiarity of such bosonic fields is that– according to a possible theoretical situation– they can form patterns and structures. As an outcome, the density of dark matter might be concentrated in lots of different areas– discrete domain walls smaller than a galaxy but much larger than Earth might form, for instance.”.
” If such a wall encounters the Earth, it is slowly discovered by the GNOME network and can trigger short-term particular signal patterns in the magnetometers,” described Dr. Arne Wickenbrock, one of the research studys co-authors. “Even more, the signals are correlated with each other in particular methods– depending upon how quick the wall is moving and when it reaches each location.”.
Mainz-based setup of the GNOME Network. Credit: Hector Masia Roig.
The measurement principle is based on an interaction of dark matter with the nuclear spins of the atoms in the magnetometer. A possible dark matter field can interrupt this instructions, which is measurable.
Dark matter particles can toss the dancing atoms out of balance. Now the network of magnetometers becomes crucial: When the Earth moves through a spatially restricted wall of dark matter, the dancing atoms in all stations are slowly disrupted. “Applied to the image of the dancing atoms, this implies: If we compare the measurement results from all the stations, we can decide whether it was simply one brave dancer dancing out of line or actually a global dark matter disruption.”.
In the existing study, the research study group evaluates data from a one-month continuous operation of GNOME. The result: Statistically significant signals did not appear in the investigated mass variety from one femtoelectronvolt (feV) to 100,000 feV. On the other hand, this suggests that the researchers can narrow down the range in which such signals might theoretically be found even further than previously. For situations that depend on discrete dark matter walls, this is an essential result– “although we have actually not yet been able to identify such a domain wall with our global ring search,” added Joseph Smiga, another PhD student in Mainz and author of the research study.
Future work of the GNOME collaboration will focus on improving both the magnetometers themselves and the information analysis. Under the title Advanced GNOME, the researchers anticipate this to result in significantly better sensitivity for future measurements in the search for ALPs and dark matter.
Referral: “Search for topological problem dark matter with a global network of optical magnetometers” by Samer Afach, Ben C. Buchler, Dmitry Budker, Conner Dailey, Andrei Derevianko, Vincent Dumont, Nataniel L. Figueroa, Ilja Gerhardt, Zoran D. Grujic, Hong Guo, Chuanpeng Hao, Paul S. Hamilton, Morgan Hedges, Derek F. Jackson Kimball, Dongok Kim, Sami Khamis, Thomas Kornack, Victor Lebedev, Zheng-Tian Lu, Hector Masia-Roig, Madeline Monroy, Mikhail Padniuk, Christopher A. Palm, Sun Yool Park, Karun V. Paul, Alexander Penaflor, Xiang Peng, Maxim Pospelov, Rayshaun Preston, Szymon Pustelny, Theo Scholtes, Perrin C. Segura, Yannis K. Semertzidis, Dong Sheng, Yun Chang Shin, Joseph A. Smiga, Jason E. Stalnaker, Ibrahim Sulai, Dhruv Tandon, Tao Wang, Antoine Weis, Arne Wickenbrock, Tatum Wilson, Teng Wu, David Wurm, Wei Xiao, Yucheng Yang, Dongrui Yu and Jianwei Zhang, 7 December 2021, Nature Physics.DOI: 10.1038/ s41567-021-01393-y.
An international group of scientists with essential involvement from the PRISMA+ Cluster of Excellence at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) and the Helmholtz Institute Mainz (HIM) has released for the first time comprehensive information on the search for dark matter utilizing an around the world network of optical magnetometers. According to the scientists, dark matter fields must produce a particular signal pattern that can be spotted by associated measurements at numerous stations of the GNOME network. With GNOME, the researchers especially want to advance the search for dark matter– one of the most amazing challenges of essential physics in the 21st century. Now the network of magnetometers becomes essential: When the Earth moves through a spatially limited wall of dark matter, the dancing atoms in all stations are slowly disrupted. Under the title Advanced GNOME, the researchers expect this to result in considerably better sensitivity for future measurements in the search for ALPs and dark matter.
Sensor network GNOME publishes comprehensive information in Nature Physics for the very first time– Nine stations in 6 nations included.
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