r/worldnews • u/Dub_G79 • 8h ago

Scientists make potential breakthrough in search for dark matter

https://www.reuters.com/science/scientists-make-potential-breakthrough-search-dark-matter-2026-09-01/
208 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

45 comments sorted by

50

u/Pixelated_ 6h ago

This is interesting and I'd like to see where this leads, but to be clear they reported a statistical significance of 2.6 sigma. source

In particle physics, that translates to about a 1-in-200 chance that the event is just random instrument noise. a claim of discovery requires a threshold of 5.0 sigma (a 1-in-3.5-million chance of being a fluke).

From all of their data collected over 220 days, the LZ detector logged a single anomalous particle interaction, with a 2.6 significance.

8

u/Alberta_Flyfisher 4h ago

Is it just a matter of time and collecting enough anomalous particle interactions? Or is it now a matter of designing more precise sensors and accurate experiments?

14

u/sceadwian 4h ago

That's the question they built this thing to answer.

7

u/Alberta_Flyfisher 4h ago

Well thats fair. But I was asking how it moves to the next step. How its shown not to be an error and get the 5.0 rating it needs to be proven.

So im guessing getting more readings, are the defining factor, not necessarily getting to a particular accuracy.

Lol, sorry. Maybe it's a stupid question, but I was genuinely curious.

5

u/sceadwian 3h ago

It's literally a 1 event data point. Now they collect more. There's lots of next steps going on right now, there are other detectors and experiments.

It honestly means essentially nothing, just science doing its thing.

3

u/Tob0gganMD 2h ago

In general with these types of dark matter experiments (called "direct detection" experiments), it's a matter of waiting longer or building a bigger detector and then waiting longer. The larger the detector, the more volume there is to "catch" a dark matter particle, so a shorter wait time to see more particles (all of this theoretical, of course).

If they detect more events like this one, the statistical significance would continue to creep up. But it's pretty common for a mild spike in significance to show up and then shrink as an experiment runs longer and more data is collected.

If this proves to be real and the statistical significance reaches 5 sigma, it would be officially accepted as a discovery (and a very groundbreaking one at that!). Most likely, this experiment would report on the properties of the new particle that it discovered (mass, interaction frequency, etc.) and that information would help other experiments (particle colliders, observational astrophysics, other direct detection experiments, etc.) potentially tune their instruments (or design new instruments) to verify and continue to study the new particle in depth.

1

u/Alberta_Flyfisher 2h ago

Thanks. That makes sense. I just wasnt sure of the process.

2

u/YeetCompleet 6h ago

I'm not too sure how these experiments work, but I'm a general sense I feel that once you're able to do this one time and record the results and the exact setup you used, it may also be easier to do in repeated follow up experiments to verify the result. If that's the same case with these particle physics experiments then it's only a matter of time I suppose.

7

u/Thunder-12345 5h ago

There’s not really any changing the setup with the kinds of experiments, it sits collecting data until eventually being shut down for an upgrade. If the result is correct it should get more detections by leaving it to sit long enough.

16

u/TehHeavy 8h ago

potential is pretty big keyword here

10

u/Qrixias 7h ago

wait so they actually found something this time

7

u/maxram1 7h ago

in the dark!

1

u/lookslikesausage 7h ago

great song

2

u/sceadwian 4h ago

What do you mean this time? These things find things all the time.

4

u/[deleted] 8h ago

[deleted]

2

u/Narrow-Business302 5h ago

So they detected a WIMP hitting Xenon a mile underground?

11

u/Karumpus 3h ago

Or, by recording millions of events, they found about a 1-in-200 anomaly in the data.

2.6 sigma is nothing when it comes to the level of data needed for verification. I’ve done experiments with 10,000,000,000 data points and we need to set our threshold at 6-sigma to avoid most false positives.

•

u/reblosch 53m ago

Good morning, and welcome to the Black Mesa Transit System. This automated train is provided for the security and convenience of the Black Mesa Research Facility personnel.

1

u/Darkovan_ 7h ago

Pppffft, potential don't get clicks 

1

u/maxram1 7h ago

It might get taps.

1

u/BernardMatthewsNorf 5h ago

The US is still doing science? I got the impression they were no longer interested in science, learning, education, or people possessed with intelligence.

4

u/hornswoggled111 2h ago

Don't let this come to the attention of the administration.

1

u/Theodin_King 7h ago

They'll have to change the name

0

u/Settra_Rulez 7h ago

Light matter

1

u/IncoherentMutterer 6h ago

Half the calories!

3

u/vreemdevince 6h ago

Matter Zero.

Now we sit and wait for people to argue which is better.

-19

u/TailungFu 8h ago

U will find plenty dark matter in my exes heart

-24

u/harryISbored 8h ago

Nobody tell Sheldon Cooper.

-5

u/RealisticGravity 8h ago

ah yes some fake smart person to mock so under achievers feel better after a full day of wage slaving

-2

u/Old-Suspect4129 8h ago

Ouch!

-2

u/RealisticGravity 8h ago

truth is unpopular

-8

u/[deleted] 7h ago

[deleted]

1

u/RealisticGravity 7h ago

*insert laughter track*

0

u/[deleted] 6h ago

[deleted]

-4

u/Sacojerico 8h ago

The Christian scientist?

-3

u/Sufficient-Set2691 8h ago

Guten tag. Ich bin eine kleine nacht musik

-15

u/fromkatain 7h ago

95 percentage of ordinary matter is plasma, djins are dark matter

3

u/lookslikesausage 7h ago

what's HAM?

1

u/BlackMan9693 3h ago

pork matter

-24

u/john_microslop 8h ago

they finally checked in my pants

-21

u/ShambolicRubel 8h ago

It was inside Mr. Bucket the entire time.