Scientists are finally finding out how dark it is – the almost unbelievable substance that is said to attract everything, but which is not. emitting light – really.
The new estimate will help determine how heavy the grains may be – with an impact on what the secret material is.
The research significantly narrows the potential of dark matter grains, from between 10 ^ minus 24 electronvolts (eV) and 10 ^ 19 volts Gigaelectron (GeV), to between 10 ^ minus 3 eV and 10 ^ 7eV – range a there could be trillions of trillions masses of times smaller than before.
The findings could help dark-state hunters focus their efforts on the designated range of many grains – or they could reveal that a previously unknown force is operating in the universe- who, said Xavier Calmet, professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom.
Related: The 11 most unanswered questions about a dark matter
Calmet, along with doctoral student Folkert Kuipers, also from the University of Sussex, outlined their efforts in a new study published in the March issue of Corporate Letters B..
What is a dark case?
According to some estimates, dark matter makes up about 83 percent of the total case in the universe. It is thought to only interact with normal light and matter through gravity, which means that it can only be seen by the way it bends light rays.
Astronauts discovered the first blow of a dark matter while gazing at a galactic mass in the 1930s, and theories that galaxies are threaded and edged by large halos of dark matter became mainstream after the 1970s, when astronomers realized that galaxies were moving faster than they should. , with all the material on display.
Related: The 12 strangest things in the universe
Potential candidates for dark matter particles include ghostly, tiny particles called neutrinos, theoretical dark, cold particles called axions, and large weakly interacting particles, or WIMPs. .
The major new boundaries could help eliminate some of these candidates, according to details of the particular dark subject model, Calmet said.
Quantum gravity
What scientists know is that dark matter appears to interact with light and ordinary matter only through depth, and not through any of the other fundamental forces; so the researchers used gravitation theories to arrive at their approximate range for masses of dark matter.
Importantly, they used concepts from theories of quantum gravity, which led to a much narrower range than previous estimates, using only Einstein’s theory of general relativity.
“Our idea was very simple,” Calmet told Live Science in an email. “It’s amazing that people haven’t thought about this before.”
Einstein’s theory of general relativity is based on classical physics; it fully predicts how gravity will work most of the time, but breaks down in real situations where quantum mechanical effects become significant, such as in the middle of a hole black.
Quantum depth theories, on the other hand, attempt to explain gravity through quantum mechanics, which can describe the other three known fundamental forces – electromagnetic force, the strong force that holds matter in place. together, and the weak force that causes radioactive decay.
None of the quantum theories of quantum gravity, however, yet have strong evidence to support them.
Calmet and Kuipers estimated the lowest correlation for dark matter mass using values from a relative kinship, and estimated the high correlation from dark matter life predicted by quantum gravity theories.
The nature of the values from general relativity also explained the nature of the high affinity, so they were able to obtain predictions that were independent of any particular model of quantum depth, Calmet said.
The study found that while the effects of quantum gravity were generally almost constant, they became important when the observation of dark matter material took a long time to decompose and when the universe was so old and -now (about 13.8 billion years), he said.
Previous physicists estimated that dark matter grains had to be lighter than the “Planck mass” – about 1.2 x 10 ^ 19 GeV, at least 1,000 times heavier than most known grains – but heavier. than 10 ^ minus 24 eV to be appropriate he said of the smallest known dark matter galaxies.
But so far, few studies have attempted to narrow the range, even though great strides have been made in understanding quantum gravity over the past 30 years, he said. “People simply haven’t looked at the effect of quantum weight on a dark subject before.”
Unknown force
Calmet said the new boundaries for masses of dark matter could also be used to test whether gravity alone interacts with dark material, which is widely accepted, or whether dark nature has an effect. on an unknown force.
“If we found dark material with a mass outside the area discussed in our paper, we would not only have discovered a dark matter, but also very strong evidence… that there is a new force as well as gravity working on a dark subject, “he said.
Related Content
From Big Bang to the present: Snapshots of our universe through time
The 18 greatest unsolved mysteries in physics
The 15 strangest galaxies in the universe
This article was originally published by Live Science. Read the original article here.