Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
STEM
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • |
  • Alumni
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
STEM

SU Plays Key Role in Search for Elusive Dark Matter

Thursday, April 10, 2014, By Rob Enslin
Share
Research and Creative

The ongoing search for invisible dark matter is the subject of a recent article involving physicists from The College of Arts and Sciences.

Research by Richard Schnee, assistant professor of physics, is referenced in Symmetry magazine, a joint publication of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center in Palo Alto, Calif., and Fermilab in Batavia, Ill.

Hyper-sensitive detectors, such as the one at the Soudan Underground Laboratory in Minnesota, are used to spot WIMP interactions. (Photo by Reidar Hahn, Fermilab)

Hyper-sensitive detectors, such as the one at the Soudan Underground Laboratory in Minnesota, are used to spot WIMP interactions. (Photo by Reidar Hahn, Fermilab)

“Scientists looking for dark matter face a serious challenge, in that no one knows its properties,” says Schnee, also principal investigator of the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS) Physics Lab at SU. “Experiments have seen no signs of dark matter particles that have high masses, but a few experiments have claimed hints of possible interactions from dark matter particles with low masses.”

An expert in particle physics, Schnee hopes to find traces of dark matter with an experiment that is more sensitive to such low-mass dark matter particles.

He and his postdoctoral research associate, Raymond Bunker, are part of a multinational team of scientists working on SuperCDMS, an experiment in the University of Minnesota’s Soudan Underground Laboratory that is designed to detect dark matter. (In addition to leading part of the experiment’s data analysis, Bunker helped edit a paper about the experiment that has been submitted to Physical Review Letters.) Schnee’s team is rounded out by two graduate students, Yu Chen and Michael Bowles.

Although dark matter has never been seen directly, it is thought to be six times more prevalent in the universe than normal matter.

Richard Schnee

Richard Schnee

“Everywhere we look, objects are accelerating due to gravity, but the acceleration is too large to be caused by only the matter we see,” Schnee says. “Even more remarkably, we can infer that this extra dark matter is composed not of normal atoms, but other kinds of particles.”

Scientists believe the mystery particles are WIMPs (Weakly Interacting Massive Particles), which travel at hundreds of thousands of miles per hour through space and shower the Earth on a continuous basis. Unlike normal matter, WIMPs do not absorb or emit light, so they cannot be viewed with a telescope.

“Spotting the occasional WIMP that interacts with something is extremely challenging because particle interactions from natural radioactivity occur at a much higher rate. Detecting a WIMP is like spotting a needle in a haystack,” Schnee continues.

Enter CDMS, whose hypersensitive detectors can differentiate between rare WIMP interactions and common ones involving radioactivity. The size of a hockey puck, a CDMS detector is made up of a semiconductor crystal of germanium that, when cooled to almost absolute zero, can detect individual particular interactions.

The presence of layers of Earth—like those at the Soudan lab—provide additional shielding from cosmic rays that otherwise would clutter the detector, as it waits for passing dark matter particles.

“We cool our detectors to very low temperatures, so we can detect small energies that are deposited by the collisions of dark matter particles with the germanium,” says Schnee. “Other materials, including argon, xenon and silicon, are also used to detect low-mass dark matter particles. We need to consider as many materials as possible, along with germanium.”

SU is one of 14 universities working collaboratively in the search for WIMPs. In the Physics Building, Schnee and his team have constructed an ultra-low radon “clean room,” in hopes of reducing the number of interactions from radioactivity that look like WIMPs.  (Alpha and beta emissions from radon, a type of radioactive gas, can mimic WIMP interactions in a detector.)

“Unfortunately, radon is all around us, so, even with this ‘clean room,’ some radon-induced interactions will still mimic WIMPs,” Schnee says. “All of us are building different types of detectors and are constantly improving our methods, in hopes of spotting WIMP interactions.”

  • Author

Rob Enslin

  • Recent
  • University Musicians, West Point Band to Perform Together This Weekend As Part of Events Around Military Appreciation Day
    Friday, September 22, 2023, By Christine Weber
  • Turning Young Enthusiasts Into Scientific Researchers
    Friday, September 22, 2023, By Wendy S. Loughlin
  • Languages Unlock Opportunities for English for Lawyers Alumna
    Thursday, September 21, 2023, By Hope Alvarez
  • Fall 2023 Career Week: Helping Students Achieve Professional Goals
    Thursday, September 21, 2023, By Gabrielle Lake
  • A Commitment to Arts and Sciences Excellence
    Thursday, September 21, 2023, By Dan Bernardi

More In STEM

Turning Young Enthusiasts Into Scientific Researchers

Miguel Guzman ’24, a native of Lima, Peru, is a senior biotechnology major in the College of Arts and Sciences with an entrepreneurship and emerging enterprises minor in the Whitman School of Management. His research centers on developing bio-enabled protein…

Center for Sustainable Community Solutions and Environmental Finance Center Announces New Director

The College of Engineering and Computer Science is pleased to announce the transition of Melissa Young into a new role as director of the Center for Sustainable Community Solutions-Environmental Finance Center (CSCS-EFC) at Syracuse University. CSCS-EFC is housed within the…

Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor Attends UN Session on Reducing Plastic Pollution

Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor Svetoslava Todorova attended the second session of the United Nations (UN) Intergovernmental Negotiations Committee on Plastics this summer in Paris, France. Todorova was invited as an academic expert based on her research on the environment,…

Experts Say Federal Agency or Global Organization Should Govern AI, New Survey Co-sponsored by Two University Institutes Finds

A new survey co-sponsored by two Syracuse University institutes finds that a majority of computer science experts at top U.S research universities want to see the creation of a new federal agency or global organization to govern artificial intelligence (AI)….

Q&A With School of Information Studies Dean Andrew Sears: Seeing Countless Opportunities in the Ever-Changing Tech World

In the rapidly changing world of technology, School of Information Studies Dean Andrew Sears knows it’s hard to predict how technology and the iSchool will evolve if you look too far into the future. But, he knows if you pay…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • X
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • @SUCampus
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2023 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.