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A rendering of the BREAD design. The “Hershey’s Kiss”-shaped construction funnels potential darkish matter alerts to the copper-colored detector on the left. The detector is compact sufficient to suit on a tabletop. Credit score: BREAD Collaboration
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A rendering of the BREAD design. The “Hershey’s Kiss”-shaped construction funnels potential darkish matter alerts to the copper-colored detector on the left. The detector is compact sufficient to suit on a tabletop. Credit score: BREAD Collaboration
One of many nice mysteries of recent science is darkish matter. We all know darkish matter exists due to its results on different objects within the cosmos, however we’ve by no means been in a position to immediately see it. And it is no minor factor—at present, scientists suppose it makes up about 85% of all of the mass within the universe.
A brand new experiment by a collaboration led by the College of Chicago and Fermi Nationwide Accelerator Laboratory, referred to as the Broadband Reflector Experiment for Axion Detection or BREAD, has launched its first leads to the seek for darkish matter in a research printed in Bodily Overview Letters. Although they didn’t discover darkish matter, they narrowed the constraints for the place it could be and demonstrated a novel strategy that will pace up the seek for the mysterious substance, at comparatively little area and value.
“We’re very enthusiastic about what we have been ready to take action far,” mentioned UChicago Assoc. Prof. David Miller, co-leader for the experiment alongside Fermilab’s Andrew Sonnenschein, who initially developed the idea for the experiment. “There are many sensible benefits to this design, and we have already proven the most effective sensitivity so far on this 11-12 gigahertz frequency.”
“This result’s a milestone for our idea, demonstrating for the primary time the ability of our strategy,” mentioned Fermilab postdoctoral scholar and research lead writer Stefan Knirck, who spearheaded the development and operation of the detector. “It’s nice to do this sort of inventive tabletop-scale science, the place a small group can do every part from constructing the experiment to knowledge evaluation, however nonetheless have a fantastic impression on trendy particle physics.”
‘One thing is there’
After we look across the universe, we are able to see that some form of substance is exerting sufficient gravity to tug on stars and galaxies and passing gentle, however no telescope or gadget has ever immediately picked up the supply—therefore the title “darkish matter.”
Nonetheless, as a result of nobody has ever seen darkish matter, we do not even know precisely what it would seem like and even exactly the place to search for it. “We’re very assured that one thing is there, however there are lots of, many types it might take,” mentioned Miller.
Scientists have mapped out a number of of the almost definitely choices for locations and types to look. Usually, the strategy has been to construct detectors to very completely search one particular space (on this case, set of frequencies) with a purpose to rule it out.
However a group of scientists explored a distinct strategy. Their design is “broadband,” that means that it might probably search a bigger set of potentialities, albeit with barely much less precision.
“If you concentrate on it like a radio, the seek for darkish matter is like tuning the dial to seek for one explicit radio station, besides there are 1,000,000 frequencies to verify by means of,” mentioned Miller. “Our methodology is like doing a scan of 100,000 radio stations, reasonably than a couple of very completely.”
A proof of idea
The BREAD detector searches for a selected subset of potentialities. It is constructed to search for darkish matter within the type of what are referred to as “axions” or “darkish photons”— particles with extraordinarily small plenty that might be transformed into a visual photon beneath the suitable circumstances.
Extra info:
Stefan Knirck et al, First Outcomes from a Broadband Seek for Darkish Photon Darkish Matter within the 44 to 52 μeV Vary with a Coaxial Dish Antenna, Bodily Overview Letters (2024). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.132.131004
Journal info:
Bodily Overview Letters