iit guwahatiThe Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati researchers have found distinctive similarities between the nature of dark matter and Neutrinos. Neutrinos is a subatomic particle that is very similar to an electron but has no electrical charge and a very small mass, which might even be zero. Neutrinos are one of the most abundant particles in the universe.
The discovery has been made by a trio of theoretical physicists, professor of Physics Arunansu Sil, and two of his PhD students Arghyajit Datta and Rishav Roshan of IIT Guwahati, Physics department. The work has recently been published in the leading international journal, Physical Review Letters.
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“For decades, physicists speculate the presence of ‘dark matter’ in our Universe. Though its existence is inferred from its gravitational effect on visible matter, supposed to make up 27 per cent of the universe, very little is known about it as no direct evidence in support of dark matter could be found so far indicating it as an exotic type of matter. At the same time, among all the known particles in nature, neutrinos are perhaps the most elusive particles. There are three flavours of neutrinos according to the standard model of particle physics, the immensely successful theoretical framework describing matter and interactions in nature. This Standard Model predicts the neutrinos as massless. However, during the late 90’s, it was found that neutrinos do have a tiny mass, the exact magnitude of which is still unknown,” the findings said.
Highlighting the unique aspect of their work, Prof Arunansu Sil, Department of Physics, IIT Guwahati said, “Although strongly hinted by several astrophysical observations, the lack of any direct evidence of dark matter particles suggests that it has a very feeble interaction with ordinary matter. Our proposal provides a clue to such a miniature interaction by showing that its smallness is connected to the lightness of the neutrino mass (smallest one) which is uniquely predicted to be in the pico electron-volt range.”
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Prof Sil added, “The work bridges the three most prominent and long-standing mysteries of particle physics and cosmology within the most minimal extension of the Standard Model which can be falsifiable in ongoing and future experiments.”
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