Science & Technology

Dark matter may be much lighter than thought

By T.K. Randall
February 2, 2015

Image Credit: (PD) NASA/ESA/ESO/Wolfram Freudling et al via Wikimedia Commons The enigmatic form of matter, which has never been directly observed, is thought to account for up to 85% of the mass of the universe. Its existence remains one of the single most important unsolved mysteries in modern physics.

Now scientists at the University of Southampton have put forward a new theory suggesting that dark matter particles may be far lighter than previously believed with a mass of just 0.02% of an electron.

If this were true then it would help to explain why these elusive particles are so difficult to detect."Our candidate particle sounds crazy, but currently there seem to be no experiments or observations which could rule it out," said Dr James Bateman.

"This work brings together some very different areas of physics: theoretical particle physics, observational X-ray astronomy, and experimental quantum optics."

Ultimately the answer may lie in the Large Hadron Collider, the huge atom smasher at CERN that will soon be resuming operations in an effort to locate direct evidence of this elusive form of matter.

If it succeeds then its findings could fundamentally change our understanding of the universe.

Source: Independent

Tags: Dark Matter