Dark matter could remain hidden



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Dark matter could remain hidden

Astronomers at the University of St Andrews have taken a new approach to describe dark matter and energy that, if correct, may render planned experiments to search for dark matter particles using the Large Hadron Collider unsuccessful.

Dark energy is thought to make up the majority of the universe

It is predicted that 94% of the universe is made up of dark matter and dark energy but, apart from very light neutrinos, neither have been experimentally confirmed. Projects are currently in progress to find experimental evidence of dark sources.

Dr HongSheng Zhao, research leader said: “The search for dark matter particles so far has concentrated on highly energetic particles. If dark matter however, is a twin phenomenon of dark energy, it will not show up at instruments like the LHC, but has been seen over and over again in galaxies by astronomers.”

Dr Zhao’s new model considers both dark matter and dark energy as a “dark fluid” like two faces of the same coin. When considering galaxies, dark fluids acts like dark matter but when considering the whole Universe they act like dark energy. Dr Zhao’s theory predicts that the energies of dark matter particles would be so small that the LHC, due to begin experiments later this year, may not be able to detect them at all.

Unlike some previous work, Dr Zhao has created a model that agrees with the 3:1 ratio of dark energy to dark matter predicted by cosmologists.

The work is published by Astrophysical Journal Letters and Physics Review D.

By Leila Sattary

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Comments on this article

afzal farrukh hafiz

The article made an interesting reading, when the whole of the particle physics and astrophysics communities are looking upto LHC to explain the unexplained. There are a quite a few lot predicting its redundnacy. I am of the opinion that we must support such projects like ATLAS which infuses new life into experimental physics which in the long run will be beneficial to humanity instead of speculating its limitations.

Posted: 07 March 2008 19:19:20

Tissa Perera

I have been trying to tell all, for over 2 years, not to waste time trying to find dark matter. I have another alternative to DM. All dificulties in basic Physics can be understood if you are prepared to accept the existence of a large "cosmic size" additional 4th spatial dimension, which also naturally emulates DM.
See my web site cosmicdarkmatter.com

Posted: 03 April 2008 23:00:57

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