Random Thoughts on the Universe

Tuesday, December 08, 2009

Is It Dark Matter?

There is a rumor circulating in physics departments that the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS) may have discovered dark matter particles finally. Of course this is all based on speculation, but they do have a paper coming out on Dec 18 containing new data and they are apparently cancelling all seminars and such until after this data is released. Could it finally be a signature of WIMPs?

UPDATE: Their paper came out and was reviewed by the physics community. It appears that they have a couple of signals for dark matter that cannot be excluded as background noise, located at around 80GeV. (They can't actually measure the mass of course, but it can be inferred from the strength of the signal). It is not a strong signal - I think they quote a 25% chance that it is an error. But as the first sign of anything since the disputed DAMA signal a few years ago, it is still worth celebrating.

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