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Solar telescope CASTs the net for solar axions
Looking for axions – an artist’s impression of the CAST experiment. The CERN Solar Axion Telescope, CAST, aims to shed light on a 30-year-old riddle of particle physics by detecting axions originating...
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Arctic Circle maintains the freshness of ancient physics
In summarizing the recent COSMO-01 meeting in Rovaniemi, Finland, Mike Turner of Fermilab and Chicago showed a suitably regional portait of dark matter candidates. A recent meeting underlined the...
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Symposium links physics disciplines
French scriptwriter Jean-Claude Carrière (left), seen here with ESO’s director-general, Catherine Cesarsky, and head of ESA’s research and scientific support department, Alvaro Gimenez, gave an...
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Symposium aims to uncover dark secrets
An artist’s impression of the ZEPLIN II detector being prepared by UCLA and the UK dark matter collaboration for installation in the Boulby potash mine. (Roy M Preece/RAL.) The universe around us is...
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Boulby extends the search for dark matter
Looking along the new underground laboratory at Boulby, towards DRIFT. On 28 April, the UK minister for science and innovation, Lord Sainsbury, opened a new research cavern at the Boulby Underground...
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On the trail of dark energy
Cosmology has recently achieved its version of a standard model, called the “cosmic concordance”. This gives a broad picture of the components in the universe within the strongly tested framework of...
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Theory and experiment peer across the frontier
The participants at the “Beyond 03” conference enjoyed a broad range of topics, from fundamental to astroparticle physics. New developments in extensions of the Standard Model, through supergravity,...
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CDMS II narrows search for WIMPs
A view of the inner layers of the CDMS cryostat with two detector “towers” mounted in the holes covered by hexagonal plates. The coldest part of the cryostat remains at 10 mK during operation. The...
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CAST sheds some light on axions
The CERN Axion Solar Telescope (CAST) collaboration has released the first results from its search for the solar axion, a viable candidate for a dark-matter particle. The result from CAST’s first year...
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Model suggests dark energy is an illusion
Arguably the most fascinating question in modern cosmology is why the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate. An original solution to this puzzle has been put forward by four theoretical...
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Do gamma rays reveal our galaxy’s dark matter?
It is well known that visible matter in the form of stars and galaxies makes up only a small fraction of the total energy in our universe. The latest evidence is that 5% is made from particles we know...
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Let there be axions
One of the biggest mysteries of science is the nature of dark matter, which first became apparent as astronomer Fritz Zwicky’s “dunkle Materie” in 1933. The two leading particle candidates for this...
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US team finds direct proof for dark matter
The idea of dark matter in the universe dates back to the 1930s, with the observation that the gravitational force on the visible matter in clusters of galaxies could not fully account for their...
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Axions create excitement and doubt at Princeton
The lightweight axion is one of the major candidates for dark matter in the universe, along with weakly interacting massive particles. It originally arrived on the scene about 30 years ago to explain...
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Dark Side of the Universe. Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Fate of the Cosmos
By Iain Nicolson, Canopus. Hardback ISBN 0954984633, £19.95. If you are a particle physicist interested in cosmology, this book is for you. It makes a broad, clear and precise overview of our current...
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New limits constrain the WIMPs
The Chicagoland Observatory for Underground Particle Physics (COUPP) has tightened constraints on the spin-dependent properties of the weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) that are candidates...
View ArticleDAMA strengthens claim of annual modulation with new intriguing evidence
Nine years ago the DAMA collaboration announced intriguing evidence for an annual modulation in the signals in its detectors, which could be evidence of dark-matter particles in the galactic halo. Now,...
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The enigmatic Sun: a crucible for new physics
The Sun, a typical middle-aged star, is the most important astronomical body for life on Earth, and since ancient times its phenomena have had a key role in revealing new physics. Answering the...
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Conference probes the dark side of the universe
During the past decade a consistent quantitative picture of the universe has emerged from a range of observations that include the microwave background, distant supernovae and the large-scale...
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Dark-matter research arrives at the crossroads
Gabriele Veneziano presents the 2008 DESY Heinrich-Hertz Lecture on Physics entitled “Space, time and matter”. This is for the general public and is held during the workshop. Image credit: DESY...
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