Sunday, July 24, 2016

Missing: WIMPS

LAT reports they can't find dark matter with the LUX detector, but will try again next time with a new, imporved deterctor.


The fact that LUX did not find anything might help to narrow down some of the models for dark matter, Gaitskell said. Of course, there’s always the possibility that this and similar detectors are on the wrong track, because dark matter isn’t some kind of weakly interacting particle at all.

so what does this mean? from UniverseToday:
Not long ago, many scientists proposed that Dark Matter consists of Weakly-Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs), which are about 100 times the mass of a proton but interact like neutrinos. However, all attempts to find WIMPs using colliders experiments have come up empty. As such, scientists have been exploring the idea lately that dark matter may be composed of something else entirely.,,

translation: They may have to rewrite the theory.

a discussion of various theories

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