Dark Photons: The Key to Unraveling the Mystery of Dark Matter?

New insights into dark matter have emerged as researchers explore the hypothesis of "dark photons," and this has presented certain challenges to the standard model hypothesis.

Led by experts at the University of Adelaide, an international team of researchers has uncovered further clues in their efforts to further understand the nature of dark matter.

'Dark matter makes up 84% of the matter in the universe but we know very little about it,' said Professor Anthony Thomas, Professor of Physics at the University of Adelaide.

"The existence of dark matter has been firmly established from its gravitational interactions, however its exact nature remains incompletely understood despite the best efforts of physicists around the world."

"The key to understanding this mystery may lie in the dark photon, a massive particle that could theoretically act as a gateway between the dark realm of particles and ordinary matter ."

Dark matter accounts for about 85% of the universe, it does not interact with the electromagnetic spectrum so it becomes invisible to current human observation tools, becoming the greatest mystery that modern physics must explore. According to the hypothesis of dark matter, in addition to gravity, there must be another unknown force operating in the universe through which dark matter interacts with visible matter. Researchers predict that this force is created and transmitted by a bridge called "dark photons". (Photo: Science Alert).

Dark Photons and What They Mean

Normal matter, the stuff we and our physical world are made of, is less abundant than dark matter: dark matter is many times more abundant than normal matter. Learning more about dark matter is one of the biggest challenges facing physicists around the world.

The dark photon is a hypothetical hidden-field particle, proposed as a force carrier similar to the photon of electromagnetism but potentially linked to dark matter. Testing existing theories of dark matter is one approach that scientists like Professor Thomas, along with colleagues Professor Martin White, Dr Xuangong Wang and Nicholas Hunt-Smith, a member of the Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence, are taking.

Dark photons are new particles hypothesized to be force carriers for a new force in the dark sector, in the same way that photons are force carriers for electromagnetism.

Dark photons and regular photons are also expected to mix like different types of neutrinos, allowing ultralight dark photon dark matter to convert into low-frequency photons.

Some theories suggest that in addition to gravity, dark matter particles may interact with visible matter through a new force that science has yet to detect. Just as the electromagnetic force is caused by photons, this dark force is thought to be propagated through a type of particle called a 'dark photon' - an intermediary between visible matter and dark matter. 'Dark photons' can interact with regular photons in a process called mixing , creating subtle but measurable effects. (Photo: Sci Techdaily)

Insights from particle collisions

'In our latest study, we examine the potential effects that a single dark photon can have on the full set of experimental results from deep inelastic scattering,' said Professor Thomas .

Analysis of the by-products of collisions of particles accelerated to extremely high energies gives scientists definitive evidence about the structure of the atomic world and the natural laws that govern it.

In particle physics, deep inelastic scattering is the name given to a process used to probe the interior of hadrons (especially baryons, such as protons and neutrons), using electrons, muons, and neutrinos.

'We used the Jefferson Lab's advanced global distribution function Angular Momentum (JAM) framework for global analysis, modifying the basic theory to allow for the possibility of a dark photon,' said Professor Thomas .

"Our work shows that the dark photon hypothesis is preferred over the standard model hypothesis at the 6.5 sigma level, constituting evidence for a particle discovery."

The research team, which included scientists from the University of Adelaide and colleagues at the Jefferson Laboratory in Virginia, US, published their results in the Journal of High Energy Physics.

The energy of those photons is measured and should be the same as that of the electrons. However, if dark photons exist, they will carry some of the energy of the original electron and the detector will detect them. The detection of any ' dark photons' would mark a major breakthrough in the hunt for dark matter - a hunt that has often proved fruitless, despite decades of effort by physicists. (Image: Thebrighterside)