Sussex: How heavy is Dark Matter?

Find out the latest thinking about our universe.
Post Reply
User avatar
bystander
Apathetic Retiree
Posts: 21577
Joined: Mon Aug 28, 2006 2:06 pm
Location: Oklahoma

Sussex: How heavy is Dark Matter?

Post by bystander » Tue Feb 02, 2021 7:50 pm

How heavy is Dark Matter? Scientists radically
narrow the potential mass range for the first time

University of Sussex, UK | 2021 Jan 27

Scientists have calculated the mass range for Dark Matter – and it’s tighter than the science world thought.

Their findings – due to be published in Physical Letters B in March - radically narrow the range of potential masses for Dark Matter particles, and help to focus the search for future Dark Matter-hunters. The University of Sussex researchers used the established fact that gravity acts on Dark Matter just as it acts on the visible universe to work out the lower and upper limits of Dark Matter’s mass.

The results show that Dark Matter cannot be either ‘ultra-light’ or ‘super-heavy’, as some have theorised, unless an as-yet undiscovered force also acts upon it.

The team used the assumption that the only force acting on Dark Matter is gravity, and calculated that Dark Matter particles must have a mass between 10-3 eV and 107 eV. That’s a much tighter range than the 10-24 eV - 1019 GeV spectrum which is generally theorised.

What makes the discovery even more significant is that if it turns out that the mass of Dark Matter is outside of the range predicted by the Sussex team, then it will also prove that an additional force – as well as gravity - acts on Dark Matter. ...

Theoretical bounds on dark matter masses ~ Xavier Calmet, Folkert Kuipers
Know the quiet place within your heart and touch the rainbow of possibility; be
alive to the gentle breeze of communication, and please stop being such a jerk.
— Garrison Keillor

saturno2
Commander
Posts: 758
Joined: Wed Jun 29, 2011 10:05 pm

Re: Sussex: How heavy is Dark Matter?

Post by saturno2 » Sun Feb 21, 2021 3:46 pm

Well, but what would to be that additional force
Acting on dark matter?
(Apart from gravity)

Post Reply