Physicists may have glimpsed a particle that is a leading candidate for mysterious dark matter but say conclusive evidence remains elusive.
A 9-year search from a unique observatory in an old iron mine 2,000 feet underground has yielded two possible detections of weakly interacting massive particles, or WIMPs. But physicists, who include two University of Florida researchers, say there is about a one in four chance that the detections were merely background noise -- meaning that a worldwide hunt involving at least two dozen different observatories and hundreds of scientists will continue.
But it's important to note, that two detection events does not mean that dark matter has been physically observed. Needless to say, these two detection events will have to be duplicated before anything definitive can be known. To read the rest of the article, click here.
Jack adds: In my theory they can never detect a real dark matter particle because dark matter is a virtual effect inside the quantum vacuum when the density of virtual fermion-antifermion pairs exceeds the density of virtual bosons. The net positive vacuum pressure gravitates mimicking w = 0 CDM even though in reality w = -1. Looking for dark matter particles is like looking for the motion of Earth through the aether - no Michelson-Morley interferometer fringe shift and no particles underground or in LHC or anywhere. On the other hand, maybe I'm wrong. Experiment will decide.