If the deviation were due to carrier particles
of a dark force of nature, it would be an indirect
proof of the existence of dark matter, as
carrier particles cannot exist in isolation. Dark
light must come from the predicted dark
particles, which physicists and astronomers
have chased for decades.
DARK PHOTON ATTRACTS ATTENTION
The Hungarian physicists repeated the
experiment over and over again for three years
and got the same result hundreds of times.
Not until 2015, Attila Krasznahorkay and his
colleagues published their discovery and the
theory of a fifth force of nature – the missing
link of the standard model.
First, nobody reacted. The scientific article
was ignored. Nothing happened, until
physicists from the US University of California
decided to test the experiment. Finding no
errors in the results, they concluded that there
was only one chance in 200 billion that the
discovery was made accidentally.
The Californian scientists published their
review, and suddenly, the situation changed.
Throughout the world, the discovery seized the
headlines of major scientific publications. The
Hungarian theory spread to all corners of the
scientific world, and everywhere, physicists are
now trying to confirm or dismiss the theory.
PHYSICISTS OPEN THE DARK SECTOR
Physicists and astronomers used to believe that
dark matter particles only react with each other
and ordinary matter via gravity. But still, the
possible dark photon is not the first sign that
the dark side of the universe may be much more
complex and active than previously believed.
Astronomers have also discovered signs of
dark forces in observations of a collision
between two galaxy clusters. In the collision,
most galaxies sped right past each other,
spreading across a large region. At the centre
of the collision area, dark gas clouds remained,
which should have spread. Something seems
to suggest that the gases of the dark clouds
were curbed by an invisible force.
So, scientists are now talking about “the
dark sector”: an invisible world that exists
throughout the universe, where dark particles
communicate with each other with dark
forces. Not only with dark light, but possibly
also via dark nuclear forces, so the particles
can unite into dark atoms and perhaps make
up dark stars and galaxies.
If the "Hungarian" particle proves to be a
dark photon, the scientists have outpaced all
scientific megaprojects to be the first to open
the door to the dark sector.
Attila Krasznahorkay heads a
group of physicists who believe to
have found a dark light particle.
MTA ATOMKIscienceillustrated.com.au | 35