Traces of dark matter can be on everyone’s desk, scientists said and told how to look for them.

It is known that it is most convenient to look for lost keys under a lamp, and not where they were lost. This is roughly how one can characterize the method of searching for dark matter proposed by Virginia Tech physicist Vsevolod Ivanov. A scientist has developed a technique for detecting traces of dark matter in billions of years old earth rocks without accelerators, space telescopes or other instruments for observing the Universe.

Image source: AI generation Kandinsky 3.1/3DNews

Traces of dark matter can be found in an earthly laboratory under generally comfortable conditions. Like under the proverbial lantern. Strictly speaking, this idea of ​​paleodetection arose about forty years ago. But then it was impossible to implement it as an experiment. Scientists have suggested that at the stage of the formation of the Earth, its rocks, one way or another, interacted with dark matter. It should be said right away that in this way the researchers intend to look for traces of a hypothetical WIMP particle (WIMP).

WIMPs, if they exist in nature as the embodiment of dark matter, interact with matter by gravity and the weak nuclear force. It is the latter that gives a chance to detect traces of WIMPs. When interacting with terrestrial rock materials during the formation of our planet, WIMPs would have left a mark in their crystal lattices, creating characteristic defects in them. These defects can be attempted to be identified using visualization and 3D modeling. The most promising method has proven to be microbiological imaging, which is used to model the smallest details of the animal nervous system.

Another problem was radiation. Ancient rocks emit strong radiation, creating signals that mask potential traces of dark matter interacting with the atoms and nuclei of rocks. To get around this difficulty, scientists proposed studying the weakly radioactive sedimentary rocks halite. Such rocks, for example, include ordinary rock salt.

«The team has already begun creating 3D images of high-energy particle tracks in synthetic lithium fluoride. This artificial crystal will not make a good dark matter detector, but it will help establish the full spectrum of signals while keeping the crystal intact,” said Patrick Huber, a physicist at Virginia Tech.

admin

Share
Published by
admin

Recent Posts

OpenAI and Google argue with UK government that online AI training ‘should be free’

OpenAI and Google have criticised the UK government's "preferred version" of changes to copyright law…

1 minute ago

Hyundai factories to employ ‘tens of thousands’ of Boston Dynamics humanoid robots

South Korean automaker Hyundai Motor Group and U.S. robotics developer Boston Dynamics have announced plans…

20 minutes ago

Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI to change business model to be heard in spring 2026

Billionaire Elon Musk's lawsuit against ChatGPT developer OpenAI will be heard by a jury in…

3 hours ago

VK Closes Showcase with NFT Avatars and VK NFT Tokens

The creators of the VK NFT project, which is a showcase with tokens and hexagonal…

4 hours ago

Tesla to Lose Veteran Software Chief

Many of Tesla's Chinese competitors have already come to the realization that it's hard to…

4 hours ago