Physicists are revisiting what they previously assumed about how dark matter interacts with itself.
dark matter
From Wired, December 5, 2021: Years of conflicting measurements have led physicists to propose a “dark sector” of invisible particles that could explain dark matter and the universe’s expansion. Now, four analyses released yesterday by the MicroBooNE experiment from Fermilab and another recent study from the IceCube detector at the South Pole both suggest that these more complex neutrino theories may be on the right track—though the future remains far from clear.
From Forbes, October 27, 2021: Fermilab’s Don Lincoln discusses the journey of the hypothetical sterile neutrino and the results of the MicroBooNE experiment hosted at Fermilab. Have sterile neutrinos been ruled out?
From Sanford Underground Research Facility, October 25, 2021: SURF will be hosting a gameshow-themed event. as part of the virtual event, “Deep Talks: Are you smarter than a dark matter physicist?” on Thursday, Oct. 28, from 6 to 7 p.m. MT. All are invited to attend the event where the audience will take part in a quiz about dark matter and the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) dark matter experiment.
From The Naked Scientists, October 12, 2021: Scientists at Fermilab may have uncovered something in muons beyond our understanding-an interview with Fermilab’s Brendan Casey on Muon g-2 and the magnetic strength of muons, their strange behavior, and how they could change our understanding of the universe.
The answer has to do with dark matter’s role in shaping the cosmos.
Even experiments that aren’t looking for dark matter directly, such as Muon g-2, could give us hints about the mysterious substance that permeates our universe.
From Department of Energy, June 28, 2021: DOE announces $93 million in funding for 71 research projects that will spur new discoveries in high-energy physics. The projects—housed at 50 colleges and universities across 29 states—are exploring the basics of energy science that underlie technological advancements in medicine, computing, energy technologies, manufacturing, national security and more.
From Kathimerini (Greece), June 14, 2021: A multinational team of 400 researchers from 25 research centers in seven countries announced the results of the DES study that looked at 226 million galaxies and thousands of supernova explosions. The DES measurements, like those of other similar galactic surveys, informed us that the current universe is less dense than our model predicts.
From Yahoo, May 30, 2021: Scientists from the Dark Energy Survey collaboration have just released the best dark matter map yet, but it’s not answering every question — if anything, the cosmos may be more mysterious than ever.