Un semnal misterios din adâncul Pământului îi pune pe fizicieni pe gânduri. Ar putea avea legătură cu materia întunecată

An experiment at nearly 1.5 kilometers underground in the U.S. detected a rare event that current models struggle to explain. Researchers have not confirmed dark matter but suggest the findings could lead to new research avenues. The LUX-ZEPLIN detector recorded an unusual event on June 16, 2023, where a particle struck an atom, resulting in an unexpectedly high energy transfer. This could hint at a weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP), a candidate for dark matter. However, the statistical significance of the event is only about 2.6 sigma, below the conventional threshold for a discovery. Further independent verification is needed, and other experiments may help clarify the findings.