Team simulates a magnetar to seek dark matter particle
MIT physicists are proposing a new experiment to detect a dark matter particle called the axion. If successful, the effort could crack one of the most perplexing unsolved mysteries in particle physics, as well as finally yield a glimpse of dark matter. Axions are hypothetical elementary particles that are thought to be among the lightest particles in the universe — about one-quintillionth the size of a proton. These ultralight particles are virtually invisible, yet if they exist, axions and other yet-unobserved particles may make up 80 percent of the material in the universe, in the form of dark matter. In a paper published online in Physical Review Letters, the MIT team proposes an experiment to detect axions by simulating an extreme astrophysical phenomenon known as a magnetar — a type of neutron star that generates an immensely powerful magnetic field. The physicists reasoned that in the presence of an axion such a...