New dark matter detector begins search for invisible
particles
Scientists heard their first pops this week in an experiment
that searches for signs of dark matter in the form of tiny bubbles. And IU
South Bend faculty, students, local scientists and teachers are playing a part
in the groundbreaking experiments.
Scientists will need further analysis to discern whether
dark matter caused any of the Chicagoland Observatory of Underground Particle
Physics-60 (COUPP-60) experiment’s first bubbles.
“We are testing the hypothesis that the dark matter consists
of a previously unknown type of
particle. It would have a mass about 10 to 1000 times that of the proton and would interact
with ordinary matter only through the weak nuclear force and gravity” said Ilan
Levine, professor of physics and astronomy at Indiana University South Bend.