Curious signal hints at dark matter – first evidence of axions?
16 October 2014
Space scientists at the University of Leicester have detected a curious signal in the X-ray sky – one that provides a tantalising insight into the nature of mysterious 'dark matter'.
The Leicester team has found what appears to be a signature of 'axions', predicted dark matter particle candidates, something that has been a puzzle to science for years.
In a study being published on 20 October in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, the University of Leicester scientists describe their finding of a signal which has no conventional explanation.
A diagram illustrating the layout of the observations
A sketch (not to scale) showing axions (blue) streaming out from the Sun, converting in the Earth's magnetic field (red) into X-rays (orange), which are then detected by the XMM-Newton observatory. Credit: University of Leicester.
As first author Professor George Fraser, who sadly died in March of this year, wrote: "The direct detection of dark matter has preoccupied physics for over thirty years."
..."The X-ray background – the sky, after the bright X-ray sources are removed – appears to be unchanged whenever you look at it," explained Dr Andy Read, also from the University of Leicester Department of Physics and Astronomy and now leading the paper. "However, we have discovered a seasonal signal in this X-ray background, which has no conventional explanation, but is consistent with the discovery of axions."
...President of the Royal Astronomical Society Professor Martin Barstow, who is also Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Head of the College of Science & Engineering and Professor of Astrophysics & Space Science at the University of Leicester said: "This is an amazing result. If confirmed, it will be the first direct detection and identification of the elusive dark matter particles and will have a fundamental impact on our theories of the Universe."
Further Information
The new work appears in G. W. Fraser et al., "Potential solar axion signatures in X-ray observations with the XMM-Newton observatory" , Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, in press, published by Oxford University Press. A preprint of the paper is available on the arXiv.
Margarita
