Dark matter is one of the things that continue to keep scientists guessing. Dark matter is out in the universe, but it has not been seen yet. It can only be known by how matter around it reacts. Now a supercomputer has profiled dark matter, and its full details might finally be known.
Physicists are still trying to understand what dark matter is all about. A team of researchers is using a supercomputer so as to make calculations to know what makes up dark matter. The Standard Model of particle physics has been used as a reference in order to study what is known as axions.
The team of researchers is led by Professor Zoltan Fodor of the University of Wuppertal. Members of the team also come from Eotvos University in Budapest and Forschungszentrum Julich. The supercomputer used is the JUQUEEN (BlueGene/Q) of Julich.
Dr. Andreas Ringwald is the co-author of the study and presently based at DESY. He admits that dark matter presently is still invisible and can only be known by its effect on matter that can be seen. He added that as of now dark matter is still a mystery. How it can be known is through observation. Astronomers speculate that many galaxies are held together by dark matter.
Dr. Ringwald further states that dark matter lies beyond the Standard Model of particle physics, according to Science Daily. To know more about dark matter, the Standard Model has to be extended. It is speculated that dark matter consists of very heavy particles.
While the search for dark matter in studying heavy particles goes on, others have turned to light particles in that search. Axions are said to be the promising candidate for it, DESY's site notes. The supercomputer JUQUEEN sees how these axions contribute to the universe. Fodor noted that they had to make a new method of analysis in order to get the desired temperature range.
The JUQUEEN supercomputer has been a great help and has given physicists a range where they could look for axions. Axions are seen to be very promising in finding dark matter. The supercomputer has profiled dark matter, and its full details would likely come out soon. An earlier report states of an effort to get the first image of a black hole.
