One promising way to detect dark matter is to search for “excess” cosmic rays that presumably originate from dark matter (DM) particles annihilating each other in collisions. Two teams have separately analyzed recent data on cosmic-ray antiprotons obtained by the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) experiment. Both groups find indications of an excess of antiprotons that may correspond to a DM particle with a mass of several tens of GeVc2
Cosmic rays contain a small sprinkling of antimatter particles, such as positrons and antiprotons. Most of these antiparticles are created in “astrophysical” collisions between a high-energy cosmic ray and interstellar gas. However, a small portion could come from DM annihilations or decays. The challenge in identifying such a DM signature is to accurately model the much larger astrophysical background in which the signal is hidden.
To read more, click here.