Using the X-ray Observatory of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), astrophysicists have looked for indications of the still-undetected particle forecasted by string theory, described as a "set of models intended" to bond together all known interactions, forces, and particles.
Dr. Christopher Reynolds, the lead author of the study and a University of Cambridge researcher said, until recently, he didn't have any idea just "how much astronomers of X-ray bring to the table," in terms of string theory. However, he also said, they could also play a vital role. If such particles, he continued, are identified eventually, it would forever change physics.
Meanwhile, the element Dr. Reynolds and his colleagues were looking for is also known as "axion." This still undetected particle needs to have unusually low mass. More so, theoretical physicists indeed, know "the precise range of mass," although a lot of theories feature axion masses that range from roughly a millionth of an electron's mass, "down to zero-mass."
In relation to this, some of the scientists perceive that axions may have the answer to the mystery, accounting for matter's vast majority in the universe.
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The Axions
One extraordinary property of this so-called ultra-low-mass element is that it may, at times, convert into packets of light also known as photons as they pass through magnetic fields. In contrast, this may also be true-that photons may transform into axions under some circumstances.
The frequency of this switch takes place according to how fast and simply they make such conversion or, "convertibility." In relation to this, some scientists have already recommended the existence of a more extensive class of the "ultra-low-mass particles" with the same properties to axions.
Axions, according to the astrophysicist will have one convertibility value at every mass. Nevertheless, the so-called action-like elements will have a variety of convertibility at a similar mass.
Dr. David Marsh, the study's co-author and a Stockholm University researcher said, "While it may seem a long shot to search for small particles such as axions" in massive structures such as the galaxy clusters, the co-author and researcher added, "they are actually great places to look."
Also, Dr. Marsh said, the clusters of galaxy comprise of magnetic fields over far distances, and they frequently contain bright sources of X-ray.
The Chandra Observation
To search for indications of conversion by particles that are axion-like, the astrophysicists evaluated more than five days of X-rays' Chandra observations from material that fell towards the ultra-massive black hole in the middle of NGC 1275, the Perseus galaxy cluster's central galaxy.
Moreover, the experts also studied the Chandra variety, ore the amount of emission of X-ray observed at this source's varying energies. The 5-day observation, as well as the source of bright X-ray, provided a spectrum with sufficient sensitivity to display distortions which scientists anticipated should the axion-like particles existed.
The absence of such distortions' detections paved the way for the researchers to rule out the existence of the majority of the kinds of axion-like elements in the vast range which the observations were delicate to, under approximately "a millionth of a billionth" of a mass of an electron.
According to Dr. Helen Russell, a University of Nottingham researcher, their study does not rule out the said particles' existence, although it certainly does not help the particular case. These restrictions, Dr. Russell added, taunt into the range of properties which the string theory suggests, and may contribute string theorists as the clear their notions.
