Dark Matter Experiment Finds Unexplained Signal | Quanta Magazine

Dark Matter Experiment Finds Unexplained Signal | Quanta Magazine



The XENON1T detector. Visible is the bottom array of photomultiplier tubes, and the copper structure that creates the electric drift field. (Xenon Collaboration)

Hint of dark matter dazzles physicists

The world’s most sensitive dark-matter experiment might have found a hint of the stuff — although the data it has collected so far could be a statistical fluctuation or a spurious signal. The data collected in 2017-18 by the underground XENON1T experiment have revealed an excess in the number of particles hitting its liquid xenon, with a relatively low energy. The finding suggests the possible existence of a hypothetical particle called the axion. “You cannot overstate the importance of the discovery, if this is real,” says particle physicist Adam Falkowski. But another possible explanation is the presence of radioactive impurities. An upgraded version of the detector called XENONnT could solve the riddle next year.

Quanta | 6 min readSource: XENON collaboration preprint