Dark matter is still a mystery and efforts to see and pinpoint its existence has failed. Billions of dollars have been ploughed in to try to unravel the mystery of this elusive particle. The only thing which is known is that it accounts for 85% of the matter in the universe.
Dark matter is known by its weak interaction with matter and is difficult to detect. The rapidly rotating galaxies are a proof of its existence. The galaxies cannot be held together by the gravitational forces of the observed matter they contain. It should be the invisible stuff which is holding these galaxies together and preventing them from flying away.
Recently German and Hungarian scientists have discovered something which could shed some light on these elusive particles. The particles in question are axioms, and it has a mass in between 50 and 1500 micro electron volts, which are ten billion times lighter than electrons.
A number of particles have been suggested as components of dark matter, particles which are massive or lightweight. Axioms are particles which has been proposed under the aegis of quantum chromodynamics (QCD) the theory that describes “strong interactions, “much akin to the way in which quarks and gluons bond to form matter particles such as protons, neutrons etc.
In spite of a number of experiments like the Axion Dark Matter Experiment (ADMX), nothing concrete has emerged. The latest research, however, sets mass attached on axioms to be in between 50 and 1500 micro electron volts, as mentioned earlier. In other words, it also means that ten million particles exist for every cubic centimeter of the Universe. Since the dark matter is not spread evenly but exists as lumps, there could also be trillions of axioms per cubic centimeter in our galaxy.
Knowing the mass range of an axiom will help a better understanding of the elusive particle and serve as a guideline for further experiments. Till now scientists have been blindly firing in the dark, but now at least they have a roadmap, a particular range to study to seek out the elusive particle called dark matter.
