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There’s a New Theory About Where Dark Matter Is Hiding


An idea derived from string theory suggests that dark matter is hidden in an as-yet-unseen extra dimension. Scientists are racing to test the theory to see if it holds up.

The scenario “allows us to make connections between string theory, quantum gravity, particle physics, and cosmology, [while] addressing some of the mysteries related to them,” said Ignatios Antoniadis, a physicist at Sorbonne University who is actively investigating the dark dimension proposal. “The dark dimension envisioned here,” said the physicist Rajesh Gopakumar, director of the International Center for Theoretical Sciences in Bengaluru, has “the virtue of being potentially ruled out fairly easily as upcoming experiments grow sharper.” The missing mass is converted to kinetic energy (in keeping with Einstein’s formula, E= mc 2), which gives the newly created gravitons a bit of a boost—a “kick velocity” that’s estimated to be about one-ten-thousandth of the speed of light.

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