The Search for Dark Matter

Most scientists are convinced that dark matter exists, yet the abundance of theoretical models outweighs the absence of any conclusive observational results. Scientists continue to suggest ways to detect dark matter particles--directly or indirectly--through a series of particle interactions that would trace back to a dark matter particle. 

In the first plenary session of SUSY 2013, Stefano Profumo, Deputy Director for Theory at the University of California Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics <http://scipp.ucsc.edu/>, presented what he called three "tantalizing results" from scientists' recent observations of our galaxy's center that could be evidence of indirect dark matter detection through dark matter annihilation. 

The results involve three anomalies. The first is of an excess of cosmic rays while the last two are of unexplained surpluses of gamma rays, including a mysterious galactic center feature at approximately 130 GeV. The two leading theories for these anomalies is dark matter annihilation and pulsar winds. 

Profumo compared, in detail, the two theories and how he and his colleagues have developed dark matter theoretical models in an attempt to determine if the theory fits the data. Ultimately, he announced that no single dark matter model could explain all three results, therefore suggesting that either one or more of the results is due to something other than dark matter, or that there are multiple ways in which dark matter behaves. Either way, Profumo's work sheds some light on the dark matter enigma.

This story is part of the Focus Feature on SUSY 2013. Go to the Focus Feature webpage for the complete coverage.