US, WASHINGTON (ORDO NEWS) — Scientists from the University of Delaware and Arizona, along with colleagues from Haverford College, presented the idea of finding scalar dark matter using compact acoustic resonators. A theoretical presentation of the idea is presented in an article published in the journal Physical Review Letters.
For many years, theoretical physicists have predicted the existence of particles that do not emit, do not reflect and do not absorb light, which is why they cannot be detected using traditional tools for studying matter. Although many researchers have tried to detect dark matter, its nature remains unknown. Some researchers, relying, in particular, on string theory, suggest that it can be even lighter than neutrinos. If such ultralight particles existed, their density would be so high that their cluster could be considered as a liquid that permeates the galaxy and affects ordinary matter.
In a new study, physicists have proposed a method to search for a particular type of particle that causes atoms to change size. It is called scalar dark matter. The observed vibration would be small for one atom, but for objects consisting of several atoms, it can be significant. And if you observe compounds whose eigen oscillation parameters are similar to this type of oscillation, you can amplify the received signal and fix the “trace” of such dark matter.
“A key element of our work is the determination of the class of mechanical objects that vibrate at the frequency of such scalar dark matter and allow resonance,” said one of the authors of the study, an employee of the University of Arizona, Dalziel Wilson. “We suggest listening to the sound from these devices in a very quiet cryogenic environment, using light as a kind of microphone.”
As a result, scientists propose using acoustic compact resonators made of superfluid helium or single-crystal materials to search for candidates for the role of scalar dark matter. Their theoretical predictions suggest that such resonators could open up access to measurements of many parameters of hitherto unattainable dark matter. In their future work, researchers would like to use compact resonators to search for dark photons.
The authors also work in a different direction. Now they intend to create an experiment that would allow us to find a signal from vector dark matter that determines the position, and not the size of the atoms.
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