Stealth Dark Matter Theory May Reveal Why Universe is Missing its Mass

The universe is missing mass-or so it appears. Dark matter has evaded detecting until this point, which means that the universe should have a lot more mass than is being detected. Now, scientists may have developed a theory to explain why dark matter has evaded direct detection.

In this latest study, the researchers combined theoretical and computational physics techniques that used the laboratory's massively parallel 2-petaflop Vulcan supercomputer to devise a new model of dark matter. It identified the dark matter as naturally "stealthy" today, but would have been easy to see via interactions with normal matter in the extremely high-temperature plasma conditions in the early universe.

"These interactions in the early universe are important because ordinary and dark matter abundances today are strikingly similar in size, suggesting this occurred because of a balancing act performed between the two before the universe cooled," said Pavlos Vranas, one of the authors of the new paper, in a news release.

Dark matter makes up 83 percent of all matter in the universe and does not interact directly with electromagnetic or strong and weak nuclear forces; essentially, it's invisible. However, its interactions with gravity produce striking effects on the movement of galaxies and galactic clusters, leaving little doubt of its existence.

The key to its ability to evade detection is the low temperatures in the universe today. Like quarks in a neutron, at high temperatures, thee electrically charged constituents interact with nearly everything. But at lower temperatures, they bind together to form an electrically neutral composite particle.

The findings may give researchers a place to look for dark matter. The new stealth dark matter theory could be proven (or disproven) by the Large Hadron Collider in future experiments.

The findings are published in the journal Physical Review Letters.

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