Dark Matter: New Theory Reveals Mysterious Substance Acts Like Subatomic Particles

First Posted: Jul 22, 2015 10:28 AM EDT

There's a new theory for dark matter. Researchers have found that dark matter acts remarkably similar to subatomic particles, which have been known to science since the 1930s.

Dark matter does quite a bit for our universe. It keeps galaxies, stars, our solar system and other bodies intact. Yet no one has been able to observe dark matter directly, and it's often been regarded as a new exotic form of matter, such as a particle moving in extra dimensions of space or its quantum version, super-symmetry.

In this latest study, the researchers propose a theory that dark matter is very similar to pions. These are responsible for binding atomic nuclei together. In fact, the new theory predicts that dark matter is likely to interact with itself within galaxies or clusters of galaxies, possibly modifying the predicted mass distributions.

"We have seen this kind of particle before," said Hitoshi Murayama, one of the researchers, in a news release. "It has the same properties-same type of mass, the same type of interactions, in the same theory of strong interactions that gave forth the ordinary pions. It is incredibly exciting that we may finally understand why we came to exist."

The new theory could resolve many outstanding discrepancies between data and computer simulations. In addition, the theory has profound implications on how dark matter can be discovered in upcoming experimental searches.

The findings reveal a possible new theory of what dark matter is like. The next step is putting the theory to the test by using experiments such as the Large Hadron Collider and the new SuperKEK-B and a proposed experiment SHiP.

The findings are published in the journal Physical Review Letters.