Researchers are studying the debris produced when particles collide at high energies in an effort to find evidence of dark matter, an invisible substance known to exist through its gravitational effects on ordinary matter. The experiment focuses on beauty quarks, unstable subatomic particles whose behavior at extremely small scales could be influenced by dark matter.
Searching the “Zeptverse”
Dark matter appears to make up a large part of the universe, but scientists have not yet detected it directly. Although its gravity affects ordinary matter, it remains invisible in every other respect.
To search for clues, scientists collided particles at high energy and examined the material ejected from the collisions. Among the debris were beauty quarks, subatomic particles smaller than atoms.
Beauty quarks are unstable and exist for only 1.5 trillionths of a second before breaking down, or decaying, into other forms. Despite their extremely short lifetimes, researchers were able to detect them interacting with other small particles at a scale of a billionth of a meter.
Some theories suggest that particles may be more sensitive to dark matter at these scales, potentially affecting how quarks interact and decay. Detecting activity in this tiny realm could therefore help scientists identify dark matter.
“We are knocking on the door of this Zeptverse,” Dr Harry Cliffe from the University of Cambridge, who led the data analysis, told BBC News.
He said the subatomic interactions allow researchers to observe potential new particle behaviors “ringside.”
“And what we want to do now is go out there and explore and find new particles waiting there. And to do that, we need more data,” Cliffe added.
Source: www.bbc.co.uk