The hint of fog marks a new way to observe neutrinos, but points to the beginning of the end for this type of dark matter detection.
Lightweight subatomic particles called neutrinos have begun elbowing their way into the data of experiments not designed to spot them. Two experiments, built to detect particles of dark matter, have caught initial glimpses of neutrinos born in the sun, physicists report.
Known as the “neutrino fog,” the signature suggests a new way of studying the difficult-to-detect subatomic particles. But it also points toward the beginning of the end for dark matter detectors of this type, which aim to spot the unidentified massive particles that bulk up the cosmos. As these detectors become more capable, the neutrino fog could obscure potential signs of dark matter.
Each experiment houses several metric tons of liquid xenon. If a dark matter particle crashes into the nucleus of a xenon atom, the experiments can detect that nucleus recoiling in response, revealing dark matter’s presence. But neutrinos can also slam into atomic nuclei, causing similar recoils. “It’s very cool to see that we can turn this detector into a neutrino observatory,” says physicist Michael Murra of Columbia University, a member of the XENONnT collaboration.
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