As the quest for dark matter particles remains turning up nothing, it is trying to throw out dark matter prototype altogether, although indirect evidence for the object remains strong, making it a long-lasting puzzle to many astronomers. A team, though, has an idea, and results of this notion have been published in a research paper.
As indicated in a Phys.org report, dark matter's conditions mean it cannot be considered a "regular matter," which includes molecules, atoms, and the like. It is easily absorbing and emitting light.
More so, even if dark matter were clouds of molecules so cold they released nearly no light, they would still be seen by their absorbed light.
It would appear similar to dark nebulae typically seen close to the galactic plane. However, there are not almost enough of them to account for the observed impacts of dark matter.
Six years after the historic discovery of the Higgs boson, the world's largest particle accelerator is taking a break to boost its power, hoping to find new particles that would explain, among other things, dark matter, one of the great enigmas of the Universe.
Neutrinos Ruled Out
Neutrinos have also been ruled out. They are not interacting strongly with light, although neutrinos are a form of "hot dark matter" since neutrinos are moving at almost the light's speed.
It's known that dark matter needs to be sluggish and thus cold. Consequently, it needs to be considered something else if it is out there.
In this most recent work, the study investigators contended that dark matter could comprise particles identified as "scalar bosons."
All known matter can be categorized in two ways: fermions and bosons. Which category a particular particle is in depends on a quantum property known as "spin."
Fermions like electrons and quarks comprise fractional spin like ½ or 3/2. Bosons, on the other hand, like photons, have a number spin like "1 or 0," as indicated in the study. Any particle that has a 0 spin is a scalar boson.
Gravity Trying to Push Electrons and Neutrons
While it appears like a trivial distinction, the two types of particles behave very differently when they are brought together in large groups.
Essentially, fermion can never be in a similar quantum state, and thus when one is trying to squeeze them together, they're pushing back.
This is the reason white dwarf and neutrons exist. Gravity is trying to push electrons and neutrons together, although the Fermi pressure is intensely strong that it can resist gravity up to a certain point.
On the other hand, Bosons are perfectly "happy" staying in the same state. Therefore, authors specified in this report, "if you supercool a bunch of bosons" like helium-4, they can occupy and stay into an odd quantum object called "Bose-Einstein condensate," as indicated in a similar Universe Today report.
The Higgs Boson
As indicated in the paper, the only identified scalar boson is the Higgs boson, which is detailed on the CERN website. This cannot be considered a dark matter given its known properties, although some theories suggest other scalar bosons.
These would not interact intensely with light but with gravity alone. Since light cannot substantially heat them in time, such scalar bosons would cool and eventually collapse into massive clouds.
Therefore, dark matter is probably composed of large, "diffuse clouds of scalar bosons," explained the researchers.
This is such an interesting notion, although how to prove it remains a question. It appears that since scalar bosons are interacting gravitationally, they interact with gravitational waves, as well.
Information about boson clouds and dark matter is shown on Trekzone's YouTube video below:
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