Hunting Dark Matter Particles in the University Basement
Manuel Meyer's mission is to understand the universe's mysterious dark matter. To him, hunting for dark matter is hunting for the fundamental constituents of what everything is made of
Dark matter: We cannot see it, cannot feel it, cannot detect it in any way. But astrophysical evidence tells us, that dark matter exists. 80% of all matter in the universe is dark matter, while the rest is made of particles that make up Earth and humans. ,
For decades, astrophysicists and particle physicists have tried to detect the elusive dark matter particles, that dark matter could consist of.
We have built giant colliders like the LHC at CERN to see, if we could create a dark matter particle by crashing other particles into each other. We have searched the universe with telescopes for high energy radiation, which could be a telltale that dark matter particles collide with each other.
But actually, we don鈥檛 always need billion-dollar projects to search for dark matter. For much less, dark matter hunter and physicist Manuel Meyer from 糖果派对 Physics is setting up a detector in the basement under his office at University of Southern Denmark.
To him, hunting for dark matter is hunting for the fundamental constituents of what everything is made of.
- Trying to understand what we are made of is, I believe, deeply rooted in humanity, he says.
Manuel Meyer
Manuel Meyer is an associate professor and research leader at Department of Physics, Chemistry and Pharmacy. His research in dark matter is supported by a European Research Council Starting Grant.
Before coming to 糖果派对, Meyer was a research group leader at the university in Hamburg, a Marie Curie Research Fellow at the Erlangen Centre for Astroparticle Physics, a Feodor Lynen Research Fellow of the Humboldt Foundation at Stanford University and the Kavli Insitute of Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology.
He is a member of several international research collaborations, including CTA, FERMI-LAT, H.E.S.S and ALPS II. Through him, 糖果派对 has established an official framework agreement with Deutsches Elektron Synchroton (DESY).
In the basement, Manuel Meyer, a current recipient of an ERC Starting Grant, is now setting up his detector system, which consists of two main components: a cryostat and a powerful magnet.
- The idea is that a dark-matter particle could enter the magnet and in it, it could convert to a millimeter electromagnetic wave, like what your WIFI or mobile phone uses to communicate.
The signal will be tiny though and to enhance it, Manuel Meyer wants to place two mirrors in exactly the right distance from each other. This should enhance the wave, just like sound waves are enhanced in an organ pipe. The low temperatures in the cryostat should keep electromagnetic noise to a minimum. The detector could thus find a hint for a dark matter particle.
Apart from the new basement detector, Manuel Meyer is also involved in searching for dark matter at the second largest physics laboratory in Europe, Deutsches Elektron-Synchotron DESY, located in Hamburg, and from the FERMI and H.E.S.S. telescopes.
Most particle physicists focus on either detectors or telescopes in their search for dark matter particles, but Manuel Meyer wants to work with both.
- This is because we don’t know what dark matter is. If it’s indeed a new elementary particle, its mass is unknown, and we have to use different techniques to probe all possibilities. he says.