New Study Expands Search for "Dark Photons," a Leading Dark Matter Candidate
Cross-disciplinary research at Perimeter Institute and University of Maryland shows that dark photons could be lurking in more places than previously thought.
Fifty years after its initial proposal, the quest to uncover Dark Matter persists, whether via astronomical observations or theoretical explorations. This elusive, invisible substance is postulated to constitute 85% of the Universe's mass. Despite ongoing efforts, concrete evidence remains elusive, supporting its existence mainly through indirect indicators like galaxy rotation curves, Dark Matter Haloes, and gravitational lenses.
Various candidate particles have also been suggested and scrutinized against observational data, among them WIMPs, primordial black holes, axions, and dark photons. The latter, in particular, was believed to have played a role in heating the early Universe, functioning as a conduit between the visible and dark sectors of the cosmos.
A recent study challenges this understanding, potentially altering the trajectory of Dark Matter research.
Led by Professor Anson Hook of the Maryland Center for Fundamental Physics, a team comprising Senior Postdoctoral Researcher Junwu Huang and Horizon AstroPhysics Initiative Fellow Mohamad Shalaby of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, conducted a cross-disciplinary research endeavor. Their findings, published in Physical Review Letters, suggest that dark photons did not heat the early Universe as previously assumed.
This revelation could broaden the search for Dark Matter, indicating that these particles may be concealed in regions previously deemed inaccessible.
According to Hook, the study reveals that certain exclusions in cosmological models, which had previously confined the strength of dark matter, were based on incorrect assumptions. The team utilized simulations to demonstrate that the energy conversion process from dark photons to standard model plasma is non-linear, not linear as previously presumed.
Once dark photon energy enters the plasma, the system becomes volatile, ceasing the energy conversion process before significant heating can occur. Huang highlighted the significance of this discovery, stating that the linear approximation used for the past 15 years may not accurately represent the behavior of neutron star magnetospheres or white dwarf magnetospheres, among other astrophysical systems.
The implications of this research are profound. The conventional cosmological constraint on dark photons is invalidated across a vast range, from frequencies of approximately 10⁻¹⁵ electron volts (eV) to 10⁻⁶ eV, corresponding to the kilohertz and gigahertz sections of the radio spectrum. This expanded range, previously excluded from parameter space, could pave new avenues for cosmological investigations.
Shalaby further suggested that this expanded parameter space could aid in the search for other enigmatic particles, emphasizing the interdisciplinary nature of the study, bridging the gap between plasma physics and particle physics.
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