Subject: Re: Good news no dark matter particles yet
If they find them, my theory is falsified. I think dark matter is a phase of quantum vacuum where there are more virtual fermion-antifermion pairs then virtual bosons. Therefore, the net zero point pressure is positive causing attractive gravity.
On Apr 15, 2011, at 2:24 PM,
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From: "Interactions News Wire" <
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Date: Fri, 15 Apr 2011 14:26:13
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Subject: [Interactions News Wire] #13-11: New data from XENON100 narrows
down the search for dark matter
Interactions News Wire #13 - 11
15 April 2011 http://www.interactions.org
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Source: INFN/Gran Sasso National Laboratory
Content: Press Release
Date Issued: 14 April 2011
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New data from XENON100 narrows down the search for dark matter
On Thursday, scientists from the XENON collaboration announced the result
from their search for the elusive component of our universe known as dark
matter. After analyzing one hundred days of data taken with the XENON100
experiment, they see no evidence for the existence of Weakly Interacting
Massive Particles (WIMPs), the leading candidates for the mysterious dark
matter. The XENON100 experiment is operated deep underground at the Gran
Sasso National Laboratory of the INFN, in Italy. While the group observed
three candidate events, they expected two from background radiation. These
new result translates into the highest sensitivity reported by any dark
matter experiment to date, and serves to further constrain the new physics
models for particle dark matter, which will help target future WIMP
searches. A paper about the results was submitted to Physical Review
Letters and on the arXiv.
A direct observation of WIMPs would link the largest observed structures
with the world of subatomic particle physics. While no detection can be
claimed yet, the level of sensitivity achieved by the XENON100 experiment
may allow an actual detection in the near future.
XENON100 is an ultra-sensitive device, with specially designed layers of
water, lead, copper and other shielding, including liquid xenon
scintillator, to filter out radiation and other sources of energy that
could cause a false signal. This is also why the experiment is located
beneath a mile of rock and Earth-these materials help shield the detector
from cosmic radiation that is constantly bombarding Earth.
The XENON100 detector uses 62 kg of liquid xenon as a WIMP target, and
measures the tiny charge and light signals that are expected from rare
collisions between WIMPs and xenon atoms. Xenon-the same noble gas used to
make those ultra-bright car headlights that have a bluish tint-is
condensed to liquid form to become three time more dense than water, and
is used in this experiment because it has a large nucleus that WIMPS can
collide with. When such a collision happens, it creates a bluish light and
a charge that scientists can detect with highly sensitive cameras
positioned at each end of the detector.
Cosmological observations consistently point to a picture of our universe
where ordinary matter as we know it makes up only about 4%, while new,
yet unobserved forms of so-called dark matter and dark energy make up the
rest. This is consistent with ideas on small scales too, since attractive
extensions of the Standard Model of particle physics suggest that exotic
new particles, which are perfect dark matter candidates, exist. This makes
Weakly Interacting Massive Particles of interest to both cosmology and
particle physics. A search for WIMPs is thus well motivated and a direct
detection of such particles is the central missing piece of information to
confirm this new picture of our universe. New data from the 2011 run and
the collaboration's plan to build a much larger experiment with 2500 kg of
xenon in the coming years, promise an exciting decade towards the solution
of one of Nature's most fundamental mysteries.
The XENON collaboration consists of 60 scientists from 14 institutions in
the USA (Columbia University New York, University of California Los
Angeles, Rice University Houston), China (Shanghai Jiao Tong University),
France (Subatech Nantes), Germany (Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik
Heidelberg, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Westfälische
Wilhelms-Universität Münster), Israel (Weizmann Institute of Science),
Italy (Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, INFN e Università di Bologna),
Netherlands (Nikhef Amsterdam), Portugal (Universidade de Coimbra) and
Switzerland (Universität Zürich).
XENON100 is supported by the collaborating institutions and by the
National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy in the USA, by
the Swiss National Foundation in Switzerland, by l'Institut national de
physique des particules et de physique nucléaire and La Région des Pays de
la Loire in France, by the Max-Planck-Society and by Deutsche
Forschungsgemeinschaft in Germany, by the Weizmann Institute of Science,
by the German-Israeli Minerva Gesellschaft and GIF in Israel, by FOM in
the Netherlands, by the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia in Portugal,
by the Instituto Nazionale di FIsica Nucleare in Italy and by STCSM in
China.
Contact:
Professor Elena Aprile (Spokesperson)
Columbia University, Physics Department
Tel.: +1 212-854-3258 ; +1 914-3255839
Email: