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marketrent OP t1_j13ifby wrote

>JimmiRustle

>Not to rain in anyones parade but was there any reason said scientists thought antimatter couldn’t travel through space?

In my excerpt comment, from the linked article:

>most antinuclei are forged in the dense messy region near the center of our galaxy, tens of thousands of light years away from Earth, so it’s not clear how many of these messengers can reach us across that vast distance.

and

>The results revealed that antinuclei may indeed voyage across the Milky Way to reach Earth, making them “a very promising channel for the discovery of dark matter” now that we know we can likely detect them here, according to a study published on Monday [Dec. 12] in Nature Physics.

ETA: Perhaps read the linked article?

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JimmiRustle t1_j13inlz wrote

So the title of the article is misleading?

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TheOutsideWindow t1_j13l248 wrote

Based on what the OP quoted, it can feel that way, but after reading the article, the title makes sense.

Here are really important passages that the OP left out of his quote;

>“What we need to do to really pinpoint this to a dark matter origin is to measure the energy distribution of these particles,” Puccio said. “Those that come with really low kinetic energy are mostly coming from dark matter, supposedly, if the dark matter is there. If it’s at high energy, we know that this is more due to standard model processes that we already know about, and are less interesting in that way.” 

>“Different masses of the dark matter particle give different energy distributions of the antinuclei being produced, so measuring the energy distribution of the antinuclei flux will constrain our knowledge of the dark matter particle mass,” he added.

>In other words, these antinuclei could reveal the mass range of these hypothetical dark matter particles, thereby narrowing down which of the competing dark matter models is likely to be correct. This information could be vital to finally capturing a direct detection of this mysterious substance, a breakthrough that is essential for understanding the evolution and structure of our universe.

Finding the mass of a dark matter particle, through the remains of dark matter particles, is a very good idea. Dark matter doesn't appear to interact with the electromagnetic force, which is why it seems to elude any visual detection, if it really exists. Dark matter also doesn't appear to interact with the strong force.

However, we do know that dark matter interacts with gravity, and possibly the weak force. So, in theory, capturing dark matter antinuclei would help us narrow down the potential mass of dark matter, allowing us to rule out what dark matter isn't, and possibly point directly at the culprit.

It sounds like a daunting task, but it would be an absolutely huge breakthrough in physics and astronomy, if they can help confirm what dark matter really is.

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walruswes t1_j16amqi wrote

It may be DM is actually from several candidates as well or there are other heavier particles in the Dark sector that carry a charge but decay into the longer lived neutral stable particle

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