A New Way to Search for Dark Matter Reveals Hidden Materials Properties
Phoenix666 writes:
New research from Chalmers, together with ETH Zurich, Switzerland, suggests a promising way to detect elusive dark matter particles through previously unexplored atomic responses occurring in the detector material.
The new calculations enable theorists to make detailed predictions about the nature and strength of interactions between dark matter and electrons, which were not previously possible.
[...] So far, these mysterious particles have escaped detection. According to the Chalmers researchers, a possible explanation could be that dark matter particles are lighter than protons, and thereby do not cause the nuclei to recoil-imagine a ping pong ball colliding into a bowling ball. A promising way to overcome this problem could therefore be to shift focus from nuclei to electrons, which are much lighter.
In their recent paper, the researchers describe how dark matter particles can interact with the electrons in atoms. They suggest that the rate at which dark matter can kick electrons out of atoms depends on four independent atomic responses-three of which were previously unidentified. They have calculated the ways that electrons in argon and xenon atoms, used in today's largest detectors, should respond to dark matter.
Will the new approach find dark matter at last?
Journal Reference:
Riccardo Catena, Timon Emken, Nicola A. Spaldin, et al. Atomic responses to general dark matter-electron interactions [open], Physical Review Research (DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevResearch.2.033195)
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