HYPER (Highly Interactive Particle Remnant) – New model for dark matter

The transition of things in the first world changes the forces of interaction between dark and normal things.

Dark matter remains one of the greatest mysteries of modern physics. It is clear that it must be, because without dark matter, for example, the motion of galaxies cannot be explained. But it was never possible to detect the dark matter in the experiment.

At present there are many new proposals for experiments: they aim to detect dark matter directly through the scattering from the atomic nuclei of the detection medium, that is, protons and neutrons.

A team of researchers — Robert McGehee and Aaron Pierce of the University of Michigan and Gilly Elor of the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz in Germany — proposed a new candidate for dark matter: HYPER, or “Highly Interactive Relic Particles.”

In the HYPER model, sometime after the formation of dark matter in the early universe, the force of interaction with normal matter increases abruptly, which, on the other hand, can explain the currently detected potential and at the same time the abundance of dark matter. material

This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image shows the distribution of dark matter in the center of the giant galaxy cluster Abella 1689, containing about 1,000 galaxies and trillions of stars.
Dark matter is the invisible form of matter that accounts for most of the total mass. Hubble cannot see dark matter directly. Astronomers discovered their location by analyzing the effect of gravitational lensing, where light from galaxies after Abell 1689 is bent by intervening matter in the cluster.
The researchers used 135 observational positions of 100 42 color galaxy images to calculate the location and amount of dark matter in the cluster. They superimposed a map of the projected concentration of these dark objects, tinted blue, on an image of the cluster by the Hubble Advanced Camera for Surveys. If the gravity of the cluster came only from the visible galaxies, the lens distortions would be much weaker. The map indicates that the densest concentration of dark matter is in the core of the cluster.
Abel 1689 resides 2.2 billion light years from Earth. The image was taken in June 2002.
Credit: NASA, ESA, D. Coe (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology, and Space Telescope Science Institute), N. Benitez (Institute of Astrophysics of Baetica, Spain), T. Broadhurst (University of the Basque Country; Spain, and H. Ford (John Hopkins University)

New diversity in the dark matter region

Since the investigation of so-called heavy dark particles, or WIMPS, has not yet been achieved, the research community is looking for alternatives to dark matter particles, especially lighter ones. At the same time, one of the species is waiting for the phase transition in the dark region – after all there are more in the visible region, the researchers say. But previous studies tended to ignore them.

“No dark matter model shows the most consistent mass that some planned experiments hope to approach. But our HYPER model shows that phase transitions actually help make dark matter easier to detect,” said Elor, a postdoctoral researcher in theoretical physics at JGU.

A challenge to the appropriate model: If dark matter interacts too strongly with normal matter, its (premium) amount formed in the universe at the beginning would be too small, contradicting astrophysical observations. However, if carried out in so far as the right, the reverse trade would be weaker than the current experience to detect the dark matter.

“Our central idea, which underlies the HYPER model, is that once the interaction has changed abruptly, so we can have the best of both worlds: the right dark matter and the large interaction to detect,” McGehee said.

And this is how the researchers consider it: In particle physics, the interaction is usually mediated by a specific particle, a mediator, as they say, and so is the interaction of dark matter with normal matter. Both the formation of dark matter and the detection of its function through this mediator, with mutual force depending on their mass: the greater the mass, the weaker the interaction.

The mediator must first be heavy enough for dark matter to be properly formed and then light enough for dark matter to be completely detected. Solution: A phase passes after the formation of dark matter, in which the mass of the mediator suddenly decreases.

“So, on the one hand, the amount of dark matter remains constant, and on the other hand, the interaction is increased or strengthened so that dark matter is directly detectable,” Pierce said.

The new model covers almost the full range of composite experiments

“A hyper model of dark matter can cover almost the entire universe making new experiments accessible,” Elor said.

Specifically, the research team first considered the maximum cross-section of mediated interactions with protons and neutrons in the nucleus of an atom consistent with astrological observations and certain particle-physics decays. The next step is to consider whether there was a dark matter model that exhibited this interaction.

“And here we come with the idea of ​​a transition phase,” McGehee said. “We then calculated the amount of dark matter that exists in the universe and then simulated the transit time using our calculations.”

There are many constraints to consider, such as dark matter having a constant amount.

“Here, we must systematically consider and include several scenarios, for example, by asking whether it is really certain that our mediator does not suddenly lead to the formation of new dark matter, which of course should not be the case,” said Elor. . “But in the end we were convinced to make our model HYPER.”

The research was published in a journal Physical Review Letters.

Report: “Maximising Direct Detection with Highly Interactive Particle Relic Dark Matter” by Gilly Elor, Robert McGehee and Aaron Pierce, 20 January 2023; Physical Review Letters.
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.130.031803