Zurich Researchers Search for Dark Matter

(CONNECT) Researchers at the Physics Institute of the University of Zurich (UZH) have set themselves the goal of detecting dark matter particles. According to a press release, an international team working at the university intends to use superconducting nanowire single photon detectors (SNSPD) for this purpose.

Around 80 percent of the matter in the universe consists of dark matter. However, physics still faces fundamental questions when analyzing the nature and composition.

With the SNSPDs developed at the university, the scientists want to discover photons that operate in a low energy range of less than 1 megaelectronvolt (MeV). These photons are produced when particles of dark matter collide with particles of known visible matter. When a single photon hits the detector, it heats up and causes the superconducting properties to disappear. According to the researchers, the resulting resistance could then be measured and thus prove the existence of a photon.

As no photons could previously be detected with the detectors fitted with nanosuperconductors, Laura Baudis and her team amplified the wires to microsize. "This is the first time that we can search for dark matter particles in this low mass range, made possible by a new detector technology," Laura Baudis from the Institute of Physics is quoted as saying in the press release. The scientists expect that the Earth is moving through a "wind" of dark matter and that the new detectors could identify particles. ce/ww