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Physicists Build Donut-Shaped Magnet To Find 'Ghost-Like' Dark Matter Particle (cnet.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNET: One of the central puzzles in particle physics is discovering what particle (or particles!) makes up dark matter — the form of matter that is responsible for 85 percent of the mass in the known universe. Some physicists believe searching for a hypothetical particle known as an "axion" could lead to a better understanding of dark matter and to hunt for it, a team of U.S. physicists have recently designed and tested a basketball-sized, donut-shaped apparatus that can seek it out.

It has been believed that axions may be detectable by looking at an unusual type of neutron star known as a "magnetar". These small, erupting stars create some of the most powerful magnetic fields in the universe. Because of their giant magnetic power, axions would be converted to radio waves in the presence of the magnetar -- and thus, detectable by telescopes on Earth. That strange cosmic phenomenon inspired theoretical physicists to create the impressively-named ABRACADABRA experiment (the full name is "A Broadband/Resonant Approach to Cosmic Axion Detection with an Amplifying B-field Ring Apparatus" so the theorists deserve a round of applause for that backcronym). The experiment consists of a donut (or "toroid") shaped device, dangled in a freezer just above absolute zero and fine-tuned to create its own magnetic field. If axions exist, the magnetic field in the middle of the donut could reveal them.
The study has been published in the journal Physical Review Letters.

3 of 154 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Donut shaped? by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 3, Informative

    It is street food. Very popular. Lentil batter deep fried in oil. You will find it in almost all Indian restaurants. Garnishing would differ. Traditional South Indians serve vada with a couple of sauces (sambhar and chutney) on the side. North Indians serve it as the patty in a sandwich, called vada-pav.

    --
    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
  2. Arxiv version of paper by As_I_Please · · Score: 3, Informative

    Here's the pre-print on arxiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1901.106...

    The primary result in this paper is the validation of the experimental design using a scaled-down version. From the paper:

    ABRACADABRA-10 cm represents the first step in an experimental search program, which aims to ultimately be sensitive to ADM in the coupling range preferred by QCD axions. Future phases of ABRACADABRA will require larger magnets with higher fields, improved shielding, and strong mitigation of mechanical vibration. Augmenting the techniques described here with a resonant amplification readout and scan strategy will also greatly improve the sensitivity of a future full scale ABRACADABRA detector. We have already begun engineering studies towards designing and building such a detector and ABRACADABRA-10 cm creates a strong foundation for this ongoing work.

  3. Re: "Dark" "Matter" by ThePyro · · Score: 5, Informative

    Don't be so quick to dismiss dark matter! We have good reasons to speculate about the existence of a particle which doesn't normally interact with electromagnetic fields. In the example above, huge clusters of galaxies collided with each other and the ordinary matter slowed down as a result of the collision, but gravitational lensing suggests that the center of mass (i.e. dark matter) got separated during the collision. It's not a slam dunk, but it's an interesting result that suggests there's more going on than just an incomplete model of gravity.