DATE2025.02.14 #Press Releases
World's highest sensitivity at the lower limit of lifetime in just 4 hours!
Disclaimer: machine translated by DeepL which may contain errors.
Successful Dark Matter Search Experiment Using High Dispersion Infrared Spectroscopy Technique
Summary
Although dark matter accounts for a large fraction of the mass of the universe, its true nature is still unknown. A joint research group led by Associate Professor Yin Wen of the Graduate School of Science, Tokyo Metropolitan University (Assistant Professor at Tohoku University until March 2024), Assistant Professor Noriyuki Matsunaga of School of Science, The University of Tokyo, Research Fellow Shogo Otsubo of Kyoto Sangyo University, Research Fellow Daisuke Taniguchi of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, and Representative Director Yuji Ikeda of Photo Cross, Inc. The world's first experiment to detect near-infrared photons emitted when dark matter decays in the mass region of 1.8 to 2.7 electron volt (eV). As a result, they succeeded in estimating the lower limit of the lifetime of dark matter with the world's highest sensitivity after only less than four hours of observation.
This result was published in Physical Review Letters on February 7, 2025 (local time). This research opens a new way to search for eV-scale dark matter, which has been considered technically difficult. This achievement marks a major step toward "unraveling the true nature of dark matter," an unsolved problem at the intersection of astronomy, astrophysics, and particle physics.
Figure: How a high-resolution infrared spectrometer helps in the search for dark matter. Most other light from a galaxy appears dark in the dispersed spectrum, but light from dark matter is unaffected, making it easier to detect. (© Yin Wen)
Related link: Tokyo Metropolitan University *In Japanese
Published Journals
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Journal name Physical Review LettersTitle of paper