JGU: A New Approach to the Hunt for Dark Matter

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A New Approach to the Hunt for Dark Matter
Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz | 2019 Nov 14

Researchers now harnessing antimatter in their search for dark matter

A study that takes a novel approach to the search for dark matter has been performed by the BASE Collaboration at CERN working together with a team at the PRISMA+ Cluster of Excellence at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU). For the first time the researchers are exploring how dark matter influences antimatter instead of standard matter. ...

The scientists are focusing their attention on one single antiproton that has been captured in a special device known as a Penning trap. The particle was produced by scientists using the Antiproton Decelerator (AD) at CERN, the world’s only research institution capable of generating low-energy antiprotons. The scientists then stored and experimented with the antiprotons created there using the BASE Collaboration’s trap system. ...

Using their experimental set-up, the researchers have already explored a specific frequency range but without success - no evidence pointing to the influence of dark matter has come to light to date. ...

Direct Limits on the Interaction of Antiprotons with Axion-like Dark Matter ~ C. Smorra et al

• Nature 575(7782):310 (14 Nov 2019) DOI: 10.1038/s41586-019-1727-9

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Lamour in The Hurricane (1937)

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<<An antiproton has both a charge and a spin. Within a magnetic field, the spin precesses around the magnetic field lines at a constant, highly specific rate – known as the Larmor or spin precession frequency. "This means we can detect the presence of dark matter as it influences this frequency," says Christian Smorra. "For this purpose, we assume that potential dark matter particles act in the same way as a classical field with a specific wavelength. The waves produced by dark matter pass continuously through our experiment and thus have a periodic effect on the spin precession frequency of the antiproton that would otherwise be expected to remain constant."

Using their experimental set-up, the researchers have already explored a specific frequency range but without success - no evidence pointing to the influence of dark matter has come to light to date. "We've not yet been able to identify any significant and periodic changes to the antiproton’s spin precession frequency using our current measurement concept," explains Stefan Ulmer, spokesperson of the BASE Collaboration at CERN. "But we have managed to achieve levels of sensitivity as much as five orders of magnitude greater than those employed for observations related to astrophysics. As a result, we can now redefine the upper limit for the strength of any potential interactions between dark matter and antimatter based on the levels of sensitivity we’ve managed to accomplish.">>