beecee Posted November 13, 2018 Share Posted November 13, 2018 (edited) https://phys.org/news/2018-11-dark-hurricane-chance-axions.html A team of researchers from Universidad de Zaragoza, King's College London and the Institute of Astronomy in the U.K. has found that a "dark matter hurricane" passing through our solar system offers a better than usual chance of detecting axions. In their paper published in the journal Physical Review D, the group describes their findings and why they believe their observations could offer help in understanding dark matter. The evidence for the existence of dark matter is very strong, yet scientists are still unable to find a way to actually "see" it. Because of that, they keep trying to find new ways to do so. In this new effort, the researchers have been studying the S1 stream—a collection of stars moving in a way that suggests they were once part of a dwarf galaxy that was consumed by the Milky Way. The S1 stream was discovered last year by a team studying data from the Gaia satellite. Other such streams have been observed before, but this is the first to cross paths with our own solar system. In this new effort, the researchers have studied the possible impact of S1 as it passed through our region, because it offers a unique opportunity to study dark matter. Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-11-dark-hurricane-chance-axions.html#jCpthe paper: https://journals.aps.org/prd/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevD.98.103006 Dark matter hurricane: Measuring the S1 stream with dark matter detectors: ABSTRACT The recently discovered S1 stream passes through the Solar neighborhood on a low inclination, counterrotating orbit. The progenitor of S1 is a dwarf galaxy with a total mass comparable to the present-day Fornax dwarf spheroidal, so the stream is expected to have a significant DM component. We compute the effects of the S1 stream on WIMP and axion detectors as a function of the density of its unmeasured dark component. In WIMP detectors the S1 stream supplies more high energy nuclear recoils so will marginally improve DM detection prospects. We find that even if S1 comprises less than 10% of the local density, multiton xenon WIMP detectors can distinguish the S1 stream from the bulk halo in the relatively narrow mass range between 5 and 25 GeV. In directional WIMP detectors such as CYGNUS, S1 increases DM detection prospects more substantially since it enhances the anisotropy of the WIMP signal. Finally, we show that axion haloscopes possess by far the greatest potential sensitivity to the S1 stream if its dark matter component is sufficiently cold. Once the axion mass has been discovered, the distinctive velocity distribution of S1 can easily be extracted from the axion power spectrum. Edited November 13, 2018 by beecee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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