The Elephant in the Universe: 100-year search for dark matter Author: Govert Schilling Echoes of the Big Bang and Deep Underground Searches for WIMPs

The John Batchelor Show

The Elephant in the Universe: 100-year search for dark matter Author: Govert Schilling
Echoes of the Big Bang and Deep Underground Searches for WIMPs

Headline: CMB Confirms Dark Matter and Energy; XENON Searches Remain Elusive
The Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), the oldest light in the universe from a few hundred thousand years after the Big Bang, provides crucial evidence for dark matter and dark energy. Analysis of its tiny temperature and density fluctuations precisely determines the universe's composition, independently confirming the need for both dark matter and dark energy even without other observations. Meanwhile, the direct hunt for WIMPs continues in deep underground laboratories like Gran Sasso in Italy, where massive, shielded experiments containing materials like liquid xenon aim to detect the exceedingly rare collisions of dark matter particles with atomic nuclei. These "xenon wars" have, to date, yielded "null results," intensifying the mystery. Only the DAMA experiment, using sodium iodide crystals, claims to have detected a seasonal dark matter effect, but its results remain unconfirmed by other teams.
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