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According to a new study by researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the US Berkeley, it has suggested new ways to capture signals from dark matter particles whose energy is absorbed by nuclei.
Various forms of large experiments have been searching for dark matter particles hitting atomic nuclei, the process known as scattering. It produces small lanterns and other forms of signals in these interactions.
Dark matter has been able to challenge all the forms of detectors that have been designed to find it. Dark matter is clearly known to make up 85 percent of the total mass of the universe, but what it’s made of is still a question.
What does the new study suggest?
The study by the researchers suggests new ways to capture signals from dark matter. Its energy is absorbed by the nuclei.
This absorption process can kick the affected atom, causing it to eject a lighter and an energized particle, like an electron. It can also produce other types of signals that depend on the nature of the dark matter particle.
The study focuses mainly on those cases in which a neutrino or an electron has been ejected when the dark particle hits the nucleus of an atom.
The study published in Physical Review Letters proposes that some existing experiments, including those looking for dark matter particles, as well as the process related to neutrinos, can also be expanded to look for the types of dark matter signals related to absorption.
The researchers also propose that new searches of previously collected particle detector data may also trigger these overlooked dark matter signals. Jeff Dror, the lead author of the study stated that there are well-motivated well-known dark matter candidates in this field, such as the Weakly Interacting Mass Particle (WIMP).
Other places where dark matter particles could be hidden and other possibilities of particles:
The researchers have now been considering other places where dark matter particles could be hidden along with other particle possibilities, for example, sterile neutrinos. It can also be purchased in the family of particles known as fermions, which includes protons, neutrinos, and electrons.
The researchers have also noted that the range of new signals can open up an ocean of possibilities for dark matter particles. It can be called as yet undiscovered fermions that have lighter masses than the typical range that is considered for WIMP.
What did the signatures suggested by the study mean?
The study team had considered the absorption process known as “neutral current.” The signatures suggested by the study of neutral current and charge current processes open the orders of magnitude of the unexplored parameter space. Both focus on the energy signals in the MeV, which means millions of electron volts.
What kinds of experiments are suitable for looking for different types of dark matter signals?
Typical WIMP searches have now been sensitive to particle interactions. According to the researchers who explored the various interactions of particles, you can easily predict which energy spectrum the particle is coming from or whether it is a nucleon that is kicking.
The researchers also claim that these absorption signals may possibly be more common than other types of signals that dark matter detectors have been designed to find.
Experiments involving large volumes of detector material along with low background noise and high sensitivity are best suited for the expanded search for different forms of dark matter signals.
The researchers have also named a list of candidate experiments that may have data and search capabilities that may be helpful in finding the target signal. The list includes the predecessor to LZ LUX, CUORE, XENON1T, PANDA X-II, KamLAND-Zen, XENON1T, SuperKamiokande, DarkSide-50, CDMS-II, and Borexino.
The research team has looked forward to working with collaborations of experiments to analyze existing data and also to find out whether the search parameters of ongoing experiments can be adjusted to search for other signals.
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