Groundbreaking Research: Can Ancient Rocks Hold the Key to Unveiling Dark Matter’s Mystery?

The visible universe makes up only 5 percent of the universe. And the other 95 percent? It is hidden in a mysterious, elusive phenomenon we call dark matter. Now, in an unlikely place, are we finally going to find direct evidence of his existence?

A team led by Virginia Tech is busy looking for this missing mass. They don’t do this with telescopes or particle accelerators, but by carefully examining rocks that are over a billion years old. Patrick Huber is the inventor and the main researcher of this method. So the theoretical physicist chooses an experimental approach in finding traces of dark matter. He has received a multi-million subsidy. With this, Huber is building a laboratory to test his dark matter theories, and who knows what else his team will discover.

Superdonker
We only know indirectly that dark matter exists: stars and planets move around the center of galaxies at greater speeds than gravity alone can explain. According to researchers, this extra force is due to a hidden mass that does not emit light itself and only leaves a trace when an atomic nucleus of visible matter collides with it. This ‘moment of impact’, like a billiard ball moving out of its normal path, creates a special type of energy vibration.

Over the past fifty years, physicists have done every experiment imaginable to get a glimpse of these rare energy spikes. Until now, however, a dark matter has been hidden. Now is the time to go deep into the Earth, where important evidence can be found in billions of years of rock.

Paleodetectives
The idea is that if dark matter ever entered our planet, it could be imprinted in minerals deep within the Earth. The plan to use rocks as ‘underground detectors’ was already conceived in the 1980s, but is only now being explored for the first time thanks to new technological possibilities. “It sounds crazy,” says Huber, “but when I heard about this idea, I immediately thought: this is crazy. I want to do this!” He found out what the costs would be to make the plans a reality. “Others buy a sports car when they get over a mid-life crisis. I’m building a lab,” he said dryly.

An atomic nucleus under fire
By developing and using sophisticated imaging techniques, Huber and his team hope to detect the microscopic traces of destruction in crystal structures caused by collisions with dark matter. If a high-energy particle hits an atomic nucleus in a rock, that nucleus can be fired out of position, researcher Vsevolod Ivanov explains. The remaining empty space indicates a structural change in the crystal. “We study a crystal that has been exposed to all kinds of particles for millions and millions of years,” says Ivanov. “Then we produce all the findings that we can interpret. What remains could be the fingerprints of dark matter. “

To block cosmic rays, most experiments with dark matter take place deep underground. But another problem arises: the Earth’s natural radioactivity also causes ripples at the atomic level. The team has created a way to filter out this background noise: they use certain minerals that can act as detectors.

Evidence 3d
Huber works with him for this purpose Brain Research Institute from the University of Zurich. This institute provides their technology, which is usually used for imaging the nervous systems of animals. Using this technique, the team has already created 3D images of high-energy particle tracks in synthetic lithium fluoride. Although this artificial crystal is not suitable as a dark matter detector, it helps to map all possible signals. Furthermore, imaging of the atomic activity in lithium fluoride has produced a number of unexpected discoveries, such as its use in a ‘nuclear transparency device’, which may be useful in monitoring nuclear reactors.

This “crazy” research project is already producing several unexpected results. In the near future, Huber and his team will study this fundamental topic in greater depth and detail – looking for answers to the question of whether an ancient piece of rock can tell us how stars move through the​​​​ universe.

A dark matter
We only know that dark matter exists because we can see its indirect effect on stars and galaxies. The motions of these galaxies can only be consistent with gravity and relativity if there is such a thing as dark matter. But what exactly it is is completely unclear. Although there are some conditions that dark matter must meet: it has mass, it is present in large quantities in all galaxies, it cannot be detected and it is diffuse, in other words it cannot accumulate in a celestial body. In addition, it is suspected to be related to an as yet unknown root cause.