Researchers across the dark matter community that have begun to wonder if they are looking for the right type of dark matter. They have proposed a new way to look for the particles that might make up dark matter by repurposing existing tabletop sensor technology.

University of Delaware’s Swati Singh is among a small group of researchers across the dark matter community that have begun to wonder if they are looking for the right type of dark matter.

«What if dark matter is much lighter than what traditional particle physics experiments are looking for?» said Singh, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at UD.

Now, Singh, Jack Manley, a UD doctoral student, and collaborators at the University of Arizona and Haverford College, have proposed a new way to look for the particles that might make up dark matter by repurposing existing tabletop sensor technology. The team recently reported their approach in a paper published in Physical Review Letters.

Co-authors on the paper include Dalziel Wilson, an assistant professor of optical sciences from Arizona, Mitul Dey Chowdhury, an Arizona doctoral student, and Daniel Grin, an assistant professor of physics at Haverford College.

No ordinary matter

Singh explained that if you add up all the things that emit light, such as stars, planets and interstellar gas, it only accounts for about 15% of the matter in the Universe. The other 85% is known as dark matter. It doesn’t emit light, but researchers know it exists by its gravitational effects. They also know it isn’t ordinary matter, such as gas, dust, stars, planets and us.

Story Source: Materials provided by University of Delaware. Original written by Karen B. Roberts. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.