WIMP Wars: Astronomers and Physicists Remain Skeptical of Long-Standing Dark Matter Claim

The generic line on dark matter is that nobody really knows what it is because nobody has seen it. The former claim remains basically unassailable—there are many forms dark matter could take. But one research group would dispute the latter assertion. Over the past several years, the Italian DAMA (for DArk MAtter) collaboration has been making the claim that their subterranean detector has registered the signature of dark matter as Earth passes through a sea of the stuff. But despite an ever-strengthening observational case for their claim, the DAMA collaboration's finding remains a source of broad skepticism within the scientific community.

The situation was highlighted this week at a symposium on dark matter here at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI). A May 2 talk by a DAMA scientist was immediately followed by a presentation about a competing dark matter detector—one whose results are more widely accepted and whose data contradict DAMA's finding. A few days later a third scientist representing a third detector weighed in, and confused the situation even more.