A New Theory on the Nature of Dark Matter

Scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have proposed a new theory that may explain why dark matter has eluded direct detection in Earth-based experiments. According to 'Space Daily', a group of particle physicists known as the 'Lattice Strong Dynamics Collaboration', led by a team from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, has designed a new model of dark matter by combining theoretical and computational physics techniques using a supercomputer. According to this new model, dark matter, which is currently naturally undetectable, was easily identifiable and observable through interactions with ordinary matter in the extremely high-temperature plasma conditions that existed at the beginning of the universe. According to the website of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Paulos Vranas, a scientist at LLNL, believes that 'these interactions in the early universe are very important because the abundance of dark matter and ordinary matter today is nearly equal; likely due to a balancing interaction between the two before the universe cooled down.' Vranas is one of the authors of the article 'Direct Detection of Hidden Dark Matter via Electromagnetic Polarization', published in the latest issue of the journal 'Physical Review Letters'. Dark matter constitutes 83% of all matter in the universe; this substance does not interact directly with strong or weak nuclear forces or electromagnetic forces. Additionally, light does not reflect off it, and ordinary materials pass through it with minimal interaction. According to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Vranas continues, 'It is astonishing that dark matter, which is several hundred times heavier than a proton, could be a combination of charged particles and yet has not been directly discovered so far.' Similar to protons, the amount of dark matter remains constant over time and does not disappear. However, dark matter produces other nuclear particles that vanish shortly after their creation. These particles can have a net electric charge but have disappeared in very distant times. In a high-energy particle accelerator (such as the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland), these particles could be produced for the first time since the early universe. These particles could register a unique effect and signature in particle detectors because they can have an electric charge. Vranas concludes that 'underground direct experiments or Large Hadron Collider experiments could soon yield results to prove or disprove this new dark matter theory.'