Lifeboat Foundation

While cosmologists may be fascinated by what dark matter does, particle physicists are fascinated by what dark matter is. For us, dark matter should be—naturally—a particle, albeit one that is still lurking hidden in our data. For the last few decades, we’ve had a tantalizing guess as to what this particle might be—namely, the lightest of a new class of supersymmetric particles. Supersymmetry is an extension to the Standard Model of particles and forces that nicely addresses lingering questions about the stability of the mass of the Higgs boson, the unification of the forces, and the particle nature of dark matter. In fact, supersymmetry predicts a vast number of new particles—one for each particle we already know about. Yet while one of those new particles could constitute dark matter, to many of us that would be just a happy byproduct.

But after analyzing data from the first (2010–2012) and second (2015–2018) runs of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), we haven’t found supersymmetric particles yet—indeed, no new particles at all, beyond the Higgs boson. So, while we continue to hunt for supersymmetry, we’re also taking a fresh look at what our cosmology colleagues can tell us about dark matter. It is the strongest experimental evidence for new physics beyond the Standard Model, after all.

In fact, some might say that a principal goal of the LHC and future colliders will be to create and study dark matter. For that to happen, there must be a means for the visible universe and the dark universe to communicate with each other. In other words, the constituents of the particles that we collide must be capable of interacting with the putative dark-matter particles via fundamental forces. A force requires a force carrier, or boson. The electromagnetic force is carried by the photon, the weak nuclear force by so-called vector bosons, and so on. Interactions between dark matter and normal matter should be no different: They could happen by exchanging dark bosons.

Continue reading “If You Can’t Find Dark Matter, Look First for a Dark Force” »

NASA’s Fermi Telescope has looked at the gamma-ray emission of M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, and discovered the largest fraction of this powerful radiation comes from the core of the galaxy, very much like in our own Milky Way. The international team of researchers has considered this signature as potential indirect evidence of dark matter.

Some theoretical models predict gamma-ray emissions when dark matter particles interact with each other. Dark matter doesn’t like interacting at all, it doesn’t form clumps or clouds, so these gamma-ray signals might only happen in dense regions, like at the core of galaxies.

Continue reading “A Potential Dark Matter Signature Has Been Seen in The Andromeda Galaxy” »

Twenty years after the project began, scientists think they are now just weeks away from receiving their first picture of a black hole.

The numbers behind the creation of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) are mind boggling enough, let alone the thought of what it might see on April 5 when it’s trained on Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the centre of our galaxy.

It’s 26,000 light years from Earth. Even though its “edge” is 20-odd million kilometres across, EHT team members say seeing it is still like trying to pinpoint a grapefruit on the Moon.

Continue reading “Scientists might be just weeks away from taking the first real picture of a black hole” »

Black holes are among the most fascinating objects in the known Universe. But despite the fact that they’re suspected to lurk at the centre of most galaxies, the reality is that no one has ever been able to actually photograph one.

That’s because black holes, as their name implies, are very, very dark. They’re so massive that they irreversibly consume everything that crosses their event horizon, including light, making them impossible to photograph. But that could be about to change, when a new telescope network switches on in April this year.

Called the Event Horizon Telescope, the new device is made up of a network of radio receivers located across the planet, including at the South Pole, in the US, Chile, and the French alps.

Continue reading “Scientists Are About to Switch on a Telescope That Could Photograph a Black Hole’s Event Horizon” »

The Universe as we know it is made up of a continuum of space and time — a space-time fabric that’s curved by massive objects such as stars and black holes, and which dictates the movement of matter.

Thanks to Einstein’s gravitational waves, we know disturbances can propagate through both space and time. But what’s less understood is exactly how that happens when properties of the fabric is continuously shifting.

Continue reading “Brand New Maths Could Finally Explain How Disturbances Propagate Through Space-Time” »

Dr Mike McCulloch says his theory explains why galaxies are not ripped apart, without needing dark matter.

Quest to settle riddle over Einstein’s dark energy theory may soon be over

Saving energy is just as important as finding new and sustainable sources. By reducing the demand we reduce the energy and storage needed in the first place.

This is a first step in creating the tools needed to design and engineer low energy electronics. Cell Phones that last for weeks on a single charge and computers and servers using micro watts. However you will still need a lot of energy to drive screens and interface devices.

Continue reading “Creating computers that use 10,000 times less energy” »

Theoretical physicists and astrophysicists, investigating irregularities in the cosmic microwave background (the ‘afterglow’ of the Big Bang), have found that there is substantial evidence of our universe being a vast and complex hologram. A UK, Canadian and Italian study has provided what researchers believe is the first observational evidence supporting a holographic explanation of the universe. The researchers from the University of Southampton (UK), University of Waterloo (Canada), Perimeter Institute (Canada), INFN, Lecce (Italy) and the University of Salento (Italy) have published their findings in the journal Physical Review Letters.

Theoretical physicists and cosmologists deal with the biggest questions, like “Why are we here?” “When did the universe begin?” and “How?” Another questions that bugs them, and likely has bugged you, is “What happened before the Big Bang?”