Scientists from Berkeley and Livermore national laboratories are part of a research team investigating what could be the first recorded observation of dark matter, a substance believed to make up most of the universe\u2019s mass.<\/p>\n
Researchers with the LZ Project, including physicists from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, presented their latest findings at a particle astrophysics conference in Japan this month. As Bay Area News Group reports<\/a>, the project was met with widespread excitement over what could be the first direct observation of dark matter, the invisible substance believed to make up about 85% of the universe\u2019s mass.<\/p>\n The LZ team\u2019s data reportedly included a single unusual interaction that could not be readily explained by known particles. The signal came from a massive detector buried about a mile underground in a former South Dakota gold mine, where 10 metric tons of liquid xenon are shielded from cosmic rays and other interference.<\/p>\n Per the News Group, the experiment is designed to detect the tiny signals produced when a dark matter particle collides with a xenon atom. Researchers analyzing 220 days of data found an interaction in which a xenon nucleus recoiled, producing the type of light and electron signals they were looking for.<\/p>\n The LZ Experiment<\/a> reportedly launched in 2021 through the Department of Energy, with researchers from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, and the collaboration includes 250 scientists and engineers from institutions around the world.<\/p>\n The finding was especially intriguing because dark matter has reportedly never been directly detected, despite decades of evidence that some unseen form of matter is affecting the movement of galaxies and galaxy clusters. Dark matter also can’t be explained by the Standard Model, the framework physicists use to describe known subatomic particles.<\/p>\n Additionally, the possible signal reportedly resembles what physicists would expect from a hypothetical weakly interacting massive particle, or WIMP, one of the leading theories for what dark matter might be. <\/p>\n \u201cThe holy grail of particle physics is to search and find things that disagree with the Standard Model,\u201d said Aaron Manalaysay, a Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory scientist on the project, speaking to the News Group. \u201cAnd dark matter is one of those, and that motivates everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n