Physicists have conducted a global search for dark matter. They literally turned the Earth itself into a giant detector. Even stranger is that the experiment picked up dozens of candidate signals that fit predictions for certain types of hypothetical particles that could form dark matter. Those signals still need verification, and there are plenty of other things they could be before they become dark matter particles. But it’s a clever experiment with some tantalizing new clues to one of the most mind-boggling cosmological puzzles. frameborder=”0″ enable=”accelerometer; autoplay; writing on clipboard; encrypted media; gyroscope; picture in picture; web-share” referrerpolicy=”strict-origin-when-cross-origin” enablefullscreen> There is much evidence that there is more to the Universe than we can see. Our models of how visible matter spreads and moves through the cosmos do not quite align with its actual distribution and movement in the real world. Physicists suspect that there is a whole realm of invisible matter out there, contributing its mass to that of the things we can see to produce the observed gravitational effects. Of course neither reflects nor emits light, scientists gave it the evocative name “dark matter.” But identifying a gap in the models and plugging it are two different things, and in this case, there are a whole range of potential plugs with different characteristics. One of the most promising candidates is what is known as an axion. While these particles were first proposed in the 1970s to solve a different problem in particle physics, physicists soon realized that if they existed within a certain mass range, they could. They also plug the dark matter hole. Unlike many other dark matter candidates, the axions are expected to interact with the electromagnetic force, and this could be what gives them away. According to the models, the axions should sometimes decay into photons in strong magnetic fields. Earth and the ionosphere, generating electromagnetic waves at a frequency that corresponds to the mass of the particles. Since decades of previous studies have restricted possible axion masses quite tightly, the researchers checked this decade’s data for signals within this narrow range. After accounting for background noise, the team identified 65 candidates for axion signals. Even after adjusting their statistical filters, they were still left with 25 candidates. dark. Another candidate is the dark photon, which is assumed to be a force carrier in the shadow realm beyond the Standard Model. criteria, which were reduced to 31 with a more stringent signal-to-noise ratio (Taruya et al., PTEP, 2026). is that this method cannot distinguish between dark photon and axion signals with the current data. Axions depend on the Earth’s magnetic field to produce their signal, while dark photons would produce theirs with or without it. However, if the signal intensity varies by location, they are more likely to be axions. The signal from axions would be weaker near the planet’s poles and would be stronger in Southeast Asia. dark so far Unfortunately, the data was collected from a single observatory in the UK, so the team can’t get that global perspective, but future studies using other experiments could help shed more light on dark matter. The three papers on axions were published in the journal Progress of Theoretical and Experimental Physics, while the dark photon study was published in Physical Review D. This article was fact-checked by Fiona MacDonald and edited by Fiona MacDonald. While we take pride in our process, we’re only human. If you spot an error, please let us know.
