For decades scientists have been building detectors deep underground to search for dark matter. Now one of these experiments, the XENON1T detector, has found an unexpected signal in their data. Although the signal does not stem from dark matter it may still revolutionize physics.
Since the 1980s the majority of scientists believe that the most likely explanation for the missing mass problem is some yet undiscovered Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP). They also figured that if you build a large and sensitive enough detector we should be able to catch these particles which are constantly streaming through Earth. So since the early 1990s, we have been putting detectors made from ultrapure materials in tunnels and mines where they are shielded from cosmic radiation and natural radioactivity.
Over the decades these detectors have increased their sensitivity by a factor of about 10 million due to ever more sophisticated techniques of shielding and discriminating against before mentioned backgrounds. So far they haven’t found dark matter, but that doesn’t mean the high-end sensing installations will go unused.
No Dark Matter So Far
Unfortunately, apart from a long-standing unconvincing claim, WIMP searches have yet found nada. Still, the search continues and everybody hopes that WIMPs are just around the corner as experiments will soon hit the sensitivity limit due to the background from neutrinos. Lately, people have developed ambiguous opinions of whether the field is already dead and some argue that we should diversify the search for dark matter instead of focussing on W ..
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