Physicists Just Turned The Entire Planet Into a Dark Matter Detector – And Strange Signals Kept Turning Up
Just axion questions.
An international team of physicists has devised an innovative method to search for dark matter by repurposing Earth itself as a massive detection instrument. Researchers analyzed a decade of magnetic field measurements collected between 2012 and 2022 to hunt for signatures of axions, hypothetical particles believed to compose a significant portion of the universe’s invisible matter.
The scientists theorized that if axions exist, they would generate electromagnetic waves as they interact with Earth’s magnetic field, resonating between the planet’s surface and ionosphere at frequencies corresponding to their mass. After filtering out background noise from the accumulated data, the team identified 65 candidate signals matching axion predictions, with 25 remaining after applying stricter statistical analysis. The same technique also yielded hundreds of potential signals consistent with dark photons, another theoretical dark matter candidate.
While these findings offer intriguing possibilities, researchers acknowledge that verification remains necessary and alternative explanations require investigation. A key limitation of the current analysis is that magnetic field data came from only one British observatory, preventing researchers from determining whether signals vary geographically—a crucial distinction that could differentiate between axions and dark photons. The team suggests that future global measurements could provide the comprehensive spatial perspective needed to validate these preliminary results and advance understanding of one of cosmology’s greatest mysteries.
Originally reported by Sciencealert →
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