Posted on 06/18/2020 8:33:31 AM PDT by BenLurkin
Scientists working on the Xenon1T experiment have detected more activity within their detector than they would otherwise expect.
There are three potential explanations for the new signal from the Xenon1T experiment. Two require new physics to explain, while one of them is consistent with a hypothesised dark matter particle called a solar axion.
There are several theories to account for what that particle might be like. The most favoured one has been the WIMP, or Weakly Interacting Massive Particle.
Physicists working on the Xenon series of experiments have spent more than a decade hunting for signs of these WIMPs.
...
Its detector was filled with 3.2 tonnes of ultra-pure liquefied xenon, two tonnes of which served as a "target" for interactions between the xenon atoms and other particles that were passing through.
Most of these interactions - also known as events - are with particles we already know about, such as muons, cosmic rays and neutrinos. This constitutes what scientists refer to as the background signal
A potential signal from an undiscovered particle needs to be strong enough to rise above this background noise.
Scientists carefully estimated the number of background events in Xenon1T. They expected to see roughly 232, but the experiment instead saw 285 - an excess of 53 events.
...
...[T]he excess is most consistent with a signal from solar axions, a very light as-yet undetected particle, which is also a dark matter candidate
In statistical terms, the solar axion hypothesis has a significance of 3.5 sigma.
While this significance is fairly high, it is not large enough to conclude that axions exist. Five sigma is generally the accepted threshold for a discovery.
The significance of both the tritium and neutrino magnetic moment hypotheses corresponds to 3.2 sigma, meaning that they are also consistent with the data.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
ping
They translated the signal already!
“We have been trying to reach the owner of the space vehicle about your extended warranty.”
Scientists would do better searching for intelligent life here on Earth.
I would have thought it had to do with whatever passes for a Google interstellar and the business account not being active.
No need look in Washington DC ... none there.
Im sorry but in todays political climate the term DARK matter is racist and no longer can be used. ;-)
"Avoid these idiots! Don't reply to their messages. Just ignore them and let them think they are the only life in the Universe. They'll probably destroy themselves in a few years anyway"
The dark matter is between their ears.
Funny, I see some there. It’s exists but the signal is extremely weak.
Amazing how much they have to make up each year to “explain” things.
“Im sorry but in todays political climate the term DARK matter is racist and no longer can be used. ;-)”
And there are the BLACK HOLES.
Yeah, creating theories and experiments is way too cutting edge. We should go back to the good old days of the middle ages.
Dark Matter Lives
“Two require new physics to explain”
If one observation destroys the whole science of physics, then the science of physics was founded on an uncertain basis and is worth nothing.
Thanks BenLurkin.
It’s an anomaly.
“I hate anomalies. They give me a headache.” — Captain Janeway
It doesn’t destroy physics! Very poor choice of words by the writer. If the observation bares up to more scrutiny there will be an addition to “particle physics theory” and be reconciled with the current model. Maybe it will be so profound a new model is needed. Even then the old model is not destroyed it’s absorbed into the “greater model”. For example Newton is not “destroyed” it’s a subset of Einstein.
We will never know as much as we don’t know.
They should check out the GOP. Lots of WIMPs there.
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