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Dark Matter Hunters Spot Possible Particle Hint
Confirmed
In Short: Scientists using the LZ detector may have detected a dark matter particle, though more data is needed to confirm.
The invisible substance known as dark matter has eluded direct detection for decades, but a new analysis of data from the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) detector suggests a single event that could be a dark matter particle. Located at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in South Dakota, LZ searches for weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) crashing into atomic nuclei in a tank of liquid xenon.
Rick Gaitskell, a professor at Brown University and the spokesperson for LUX-ZEPLIN, expressed intrigue over the event, stating, 'We’re very intrigued to see this event in the data, in the region where we expect dark matter to show up and the competing backgrounds are very low.' However, Daniel Akerib, a physicist at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, noted that more than one anomalous event is needed to confirm the discovery and learn more about the particle's properties.
What's confirmed
What's still developing
- The invisible substance pervades the cosmos but has eluded direct detection so far The LZ detector (shown under construction) spotted a single event that could be a dark matter particle, but scientists need more data…
- A new analysis of data from LUX-ZEPLIN, or LZ, found a single particle interaction that is consistent with dark matter, researchers report September 1 at the TeV Particle Astrophysics meeting in Tendo, Japan, and in…
- Dark matter is an invisible substance that’s never been directly observed, despite decades of searching.
- LZ, located at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, S.D., searches for a class of dark matter called weakly interacting massive particles, or WIMPs, crashing into atomic nuclei in a tank of liquid xenon.
- If dark matter really is behind this event, there are likely others waiting to be found.
- Has a dark-matter particle been detected at last?
- "We’re very intrigued to see this event in the data, in the region where we expect dark matter to show up and the competing backgrounds are very low,” Rick Gaitskell, a professor at Brown University and the…
- An electric field drifts the electrons to the top of the chamber, where they generate a second flash of light. (Image: Greg Stewart/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory) Daniel Akerib, a physicist at SLAC National…