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Dark energy is the name of the strange force that causes the universe to speed up over time, rather than slow down. Dark matter are particles that do not absorb, reflect or emit light, making them undetectable; comprise 85% of the matter in the universe and a quarter of its mass.
The new findings, from the Institute of Particle and Nuclear Studies (IPNS) of the University of Tokyo and the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics (MPA), examine the microwave background radiation that exists in the universe after the Big Bang and their symmetry.
The current laws of physics are thought to work the same way in one system as in another system in which all spatial coordinates are upside down. This symmetry is called “parity”.
However, if it were possible to violate this symmetry, more information could be discovered about the mysterious dark matter and dark energy in the universe.
A potential violation has been detected in this background radiation. The light from the Big Bang became “polarized” when it was scattered by electrons 400,000 years after the initial explosion.
This is similar to how unpolarized light from the sun becomes polarized when it is scattered by water droplets into the atmosphere and forms a rainbow.
As light traveled through the universe, it interacted with dark matter and dark energy and may have caused the plane of polarization to rotate.
“If dark matter or dark energy interacts with cosmic microwave background light in a way that violates parity symmetry, we can find its signature in the polarization data,” said Yuto Minami, a postdoctoral fellow. at IPNS.
Scientists used polarization-sensitive detectors aboard the Planck satellite to measure the angle of rotation, with knowledge of how the polarization-sensitive detectors are oriented relative to the sky.
This has been historically challenging; the uncertainties on rotation caused by the detectors themselves have nullified previous measurements of the cosmic polarization angle.
Scientists have found that the distance that light travels from dust within the Milky Way galaxy is less than that of ancient light, which means that it is not affected by dark matter or dark energy.
“We have developed a new method for determining artificial rotation using the polarized light emitted by the dust in our Milky Way,” Minami said.
“With this method we have achieved twice the accuracy of the previous job and we are finally able to measure [the rotation angle]”.
Unfortunately, the violation of parity symmetry was only detected with a confidence level of 99.2%. For a new discovery to be valid, it must have a confidence level of 99.99995%.
“It is clear that we have not yet found definitive evidence for the new physics; Greater statistical significance is needed to confirm this signal. But we are thrilled because our new method has finally allowed us to make this “impossible” measurement, which could indicate new physics, ”said Eiichiro Komatsu, MPA director and principal investigator of the IPMU. The research was published in Physical Review Letters on November 23.
Scientists have suggested that dark energy may be a cosmic “quintessence” – a substance in itself, rather than a constant of space as previously thought.
“I think we would probably want to go through this very carefully before we get too flustered,” said theoretical physicist Marc Kamionkowski, who studied quintessence in 1998. Nature.
If this were true, it would completely change human understanding of the laws of physics, which does not envisage any kind of quintessence. It could also change the recorded age of the universe, which is calculated based on data collected by the Planck Institute. However, the research supporting it is currently not strong enough to be accepted.
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