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Becky Ferreira, 13 December 2022, Motherboard (Vice Media)

Excerpt:

>One possible method to search for dark matter is to capture “antinuclei,” which are the antimatter versions of the nuclei found in normal atoms. Antinuclei might be generated by interactions between dark matter particles, distinguishing them as a potential window into the longstanding question the nature of this elusive material.

>However, 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.

>Now, scientists have used the ALICE detector at the Large Hadron Collider, the biggest particle accelerator on Earth, to estimate the “transparency” of our galaxy to helium antinuclei, a measurement that makes it possible to estimate how far these particles can travel before they encounter regular matter and disappear.

> 

>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.

>“Antinuclei don’t travel straight through the galaxy because they are charged and there are magnetic fields” in the Milky Way, said Maximiliano Puccio, a member of the ALICE collaboration and a co-author of the new study, in a call with Motherboard.

>“This means they have a very contorted path of coming to the Earth that is much longer than the linear distance from the center of the galaxy.”

>“When we put all the ingredients together” at CERN “and we saw that half of the [antinuclei] survive, that was quite something,” he added, noting that the finding suggests that these strange particles can wind up around Earth.

Nature Physics, 2022. DOI 10.1038/s41567-022-01804-8

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

>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?

So the title of the article is misleading?

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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Antimatter has nothing to do with dark matter, so I'm a little confused here.

The fact that anything at all could travel thousands of lightyears without touching a single particle of matter is quite mind blowing. Like I know the vaccuum of space is believed to be 'empty' but it's not entirely true, there's still particles floating around here and there, whether it's a gas or solid irregardless, with frequently lots of empty space between the particles sure, but thousands of light years is a very very long distance.

Maybe try reading the article?

>One possible method to search for dark matter is to capture “antinuclei,” which are the antimatter versions of the nuclei found in normal atoms. Antinuclei might be generated by interactions between dark matter particles, distinguishing them as a potential window into the longstanding question the nature of this elusive material

> Antimatter has nothing to do with dark matter

"Nothing to do with" is a pretty strong assertion. How'd you come to that conclusion? And what makes you so confident in it that you feel the need to present it as fact to people?

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-03431-5

https://arxiv.org/abs/2006.00255

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

I voted this up so that you can look like a fool to more people.