Nuclear Physics Institute physicists. GI Budkera (INP) SB RAS has proposed an alternative way of reading the signal from dark matter particles to look for. This has been reported area institute.
The team developed a biphasic argon-based cryogenic detector and with it demonstrated a concept that could be used to detect light in the visible range from dark matter particles.
The press service noted that in experiments on an argon detector, scientists have shown the possibility of using it to search for WIMP (Weakly Interacting Large Particle), that is, large particles with weak interaction, which are the main candidates for the role of dark matter particles. . The results of the Russian scientists’ work have been published in The European Physical Journal C and could be useful for various projects to study dark matter.
As Vladislav Oleinikov, a researcher at the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said, before the work of the Institute’s specialists, knowledge about the mechanisms of radiation in the visible range was incomplete and scattered. In their work, the physicists were able to study the mechanisms of both electroluminescence and luminescence in the visible range.
“As expected, the intensity of the radiation in the visible range was lower than in the ultraviolet. However, using an electroluminescent signal, it is possible to detect WIMPs with masses above 10 GeV/c2. So if the particle is heavy, it will transfer enough energy to the argon core that we can observe the signal from it. “Without a spectrum shifter, the signal of primary scintillations from the WIMP is unlikely to be recorded in the visible range. Although in some experiments they have learned to work even only in an electroluminescent signal recording mode,” explained Oleinikov, “if in the future researchers refuse to work with re-emitters, then it is better to use their alternative concept.” He added that it would be possible. It will allow the WIMP to be recorded within a certain mass range.
Formerly St. A Russian physicist from St. Petersburg State University estimated the presence of a second Higgs boson.