In a new study, scientists say that a particle that
links to a fifth dimension can explain dark matter. (The previous article has
been updated.) The “warped extra dimension” (WED) is a trademark of a popular
physics model that was first introduced in 1999. This research, which was
published in The European Physical Journal C, is the first to use the theory to
explain the long-standing dark matter problem in particle physics. The idea of dark
matter, which makes up most of the matter in the universe, is the basis for
what we know about how the universe works. Dark matter is like a pinch-hitter
that helps scientists figure out how gravity works. Without a “x factor” of
dark matter, many things would dissolve or fall apart. Even so, dark matter
doesn’t change the particles we can see and “feel,” so it must have other
special qualities as well.
“[T]here are still some questions which do not have
an answer within the [standard model of physics],” the scientists, from Spain
and Germany, explain in their study. “One of the most significant examples is
the so-called hierarchy problem, the question why the Higgs boson is much
lighter than the characteristic scale of gravity. [The standard model of
physics] cannot accommodate some other observed phenomena. One of the most
striking examples is the existence of dark matter.” A WED model is being used
in the new study to try to figure out why there is dark matter. Scientists
looked at fermion masses, which they think could be sent through portals into
the fifth dimension to make dark matter relics and “fermionic dark matter.”
Could dimension-traveling fermions explain at least some of the dark matter
scientists have so far not been able to observe? “We know that there is no
viable [dark matter] candidate in the [standard model of physics],” the
scientists say, “so already this fact asks for the presence of new physics.”
Basically, a key piece of math makes bulk masses of
fermions, which show up in the so-called “warped space” of the fifth dimension.
This pocket “dark sector” is one possible explanation for the huge amount of
dark matter that hasn’t been found yet with any of the standard model of
physics measurements. Fermions that get stuck in a portal to a twisted fifth
dimension could be “acting as” dark matter. How would we be able to see this
type of dark matter to prove it? This is the biggest problem with many theories
of dark matter right now. But all that would be needed to find fermionic dark
matter in a twisted fifth dimension is the right kind of gravitational wave
detector, which are becoming more common all over the world. In fact, the
answer to the mystery of dark matter might be right around the corner.
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