dark matter Physicists – Physicists are now proposing to use detectors for ghost particles, which are typically used to detect the Sun and the universe, to detect faint dark matter. The effort aims to detect the substance that makes up most of the universe, dark matter, which has never been observed directly.

Given the potential to put these giant instruments to new uses, scientists hope to investigate dark matter particles too light to detect by conventional methods. Repurposing neutrino telescopes for dark matter According to the paper, neutrino observatories like Juno, Borexino and SNO+ are large underground detectors filled with glowing fluids and a few thousand highly sensitive light sensors.

Although these instruments are built to detect neutrinos – very small particles that rarely interact with matter – the researchers propose that these installations could also find sub-GeV dark matter particles by looking for mild annual changes in their background signals. Since these detectors have very large target masses and very low energy limits, in some mass ranges, they could become a kind of competition for existing dark matter experiments, especially in the case of lighter particles that are difficult to detect by other technologies. Why this approach matters Direct dark matter experiments like Lux-Zeppelin are imposing more and more stringent limits but have not yet detected definitive dark matter signals.

Adding neutrino detectors provides a complementary strategy that could limit the area where dark matter is hidden or even lead to its discovery. Multiple observatories globally can also verify any signals detected, thus assuring the results. Although the search is difficult, this pioneering deployment of previously available instruments shows how scientists are pushing the boundaries in exploring the most mysterious components of the universe.