Updated

Updated · Yahoo! Voices · Jul 30

LHC Physicists Propose 27-Kilometer Dark Matter Search Using Existing Beam-Loss Data

Updated

Updated · Yahoo! Voices · Jul 30

LHC Physicists Propose 27-Kilometer Dark Matter Search Using Existing Beam-Loss Data

Q: Are CERN’s mysterious UFO beam disruptions just dust, or could passing axion quark nuggets be shaking the accelerator from underground?

The beam disruptions are still most likely dust, but a passing axion quark nugget remains a testable, highly speculative possibility. At CERN’s Large Hadron Collider, the so-called “UFO” events are sudden beam-loss glitches widely attributed to microscopic dust entering the proton beam. What Liang and Zhitnitsky of the University of British Columbia propose is not that the dust explanation is wrong, but that dark matter could be the hidden trigger that shakes the dust loose. Their candidate is the axion quark nugget, or AQN, a hypothetical macroscopic form of dark matter. In their model, if an AQN passed within roughly 100 kilometers of the LHC, it could create a faint underground acoustic vibration. That vibration might disturb dust inside the 27-kilometer tunnel, producing a burst of beam-loss events. The key point is that the idea makes a specific prediction. Instead of isolated glitches, researchers should see three or more correlated UFO signals within about two seconds at successive points along the tunnel. The authors argue that pattern should stand out above normal background and could be searched for in existing beam-loss monitor data, without installing new hardware. So far, there is no evidence that AQNs caused any LHC UFOs. The authors have not yet completed a full analysis of past CERN data, and AQNs themselves are not established physics. For now, dust remains the standard explanation. The dark-matter link is an intriguing hypothesis, not a demonstrated result.

3 articles · Updated · Yahoo! Voices · Jul 30

University of British Columbia physicists say past Large Hadron Collider beam-loss records could already contain signs of macroscopic dark matter, without any hardware changes to the machine.
Their idea links mysterious LHC “UFO” glitches to axion quark nuggets: a dark-matter object passing within about 100 kilometers could send a faint underground shock wave that shakes dust into the proton beam.
The team calculated the signal would stand about five times above background noise and appear as three or more correlated beam-loss events within 2 seconds at successive points along the 27-kilometer tunnel.
Liang and Zhitnitsky have not analyzed CERN data themselves; the Physical Review D paper is meant to spur a recheck of past UFO events and future dedicated searches.
The proposal would widen dark-matter hunting beyond elementary particles and could, in principle, extend to other large accelerators as a broader acoustic detection network.