In a World First, Physicists Narrow Down the Possible Mass of Dark Matter
MrPlow wrote in with a submission, via IRC, for c0lo.
We may not know what dark matter is, but scientists now have a better idea of what to look for.
Based on quantum gravity, physicists have worked out new, much more stringent upper and lower mass limits of dark matter particles. And they have found that the mass range is way tighter than previously thought.
This means that the dark matter candidates that are either extremely light or heavy are unlikely to be the answer, based on our current understanding of the Universe.
"This is the first time that anyone has thought to use what we know about quantum gravity as a way to calculate the mass range for dark matter. We were surprised when we realised no-one had done it before - as were the fellow scientists reviewing our paper," said physicist and astronomer Xavier Calmet of the University of Sussex in the UK.
"What we've done shows that dark matter cannot be either 'ultra-light' or 'super-heavy' as some theorise - unless there is an as-yet unknown additional force acting on it. This piece of research helps physicists in two ways: it focuses the search area for dark matter, and it will potentially also help reveal whether or not there is a mysterious unknown additional force in the Universe."
Journal Reference:
Xavier Calmet, Folkert Kuipers. Theoretical bounds on dark matter masses [open], Physics Letters B (DOI: 10.1016/j.physletb.2021.136068)
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