Dark Matter

Matt Cannon (928)

Physics 222
2/15/02
Final Draft
 Dark Matter

The ultimate destiny of our expanding universe depends on how much matter it contains

and whether or not the amount of matter will be enough to one day stop the expansion. When

astronomers add up all the visible matter (matter that emits or reflects light) in the universe, the

result is that there is clearly not enough to stop the expansion of the universe. However, they have

discovered over the past several decades that there may be additional matter hidden from view.1

This raises some important questions. What is this dark matter made of? How can it be detected?

Astronomers first found substantial observational evidence of unseen matter in the early

twentieth century when studying the galaxy M31.2 They discovered that the velocity curve for the

outer limbs of the galaxy, which should drop off with increasing radius as mandated by Kepler's

Laws and the Virial Theorem, leveled off at approximately 200 km/s. This observation was

confirmed in the early 1970’s when radio astronomers found that hydrogen gas at the edge of

galaxies moved with roughly the same velocity as hydrogen gas at the center of galaxies. If the

visible matter seen in galaxies is the only source of mass then the observed uniform velocity of

hydrogen gas is a direct violation of Kepler’s Laws and the conservation of angular momentum.

Thus, the simplest explanation (which is usually the correct one) is that the visible matter in

galaxies doesn’t account for all of the mass! This claim suggests that most of the mass in the

universe, as much as 90%2, is contributed by unseen or “dark” matter. So, what is dark matter

made of? There is no reason why dark matter has to be made of one single material. It is likely

that there are different types of dark matter.

Dark matter candidates are generally divided into two categories: baryonic material, and

non-baryonic material. Baryons are a subgroup of particles known as hadrons (particles that

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interact via the strong interaction) and are defined by having ½-integral spins (1/2, 3/2, 5/2, etc.).

They comprise most of the matter that we deal with every day and ultimately decay into protons.3

The suggestion that dark matter has the same rotational velocity as visible matter has led many to

believe that dark matter is comprised of the same material as visible matter—baryonic particles.2

The baryonic material emits only extremely weak blackbody radiation, and the best candidates are

generally massive aggregates of particles rather than individual particles. These massive

aggregates are often called Massive Astronomical Compact Halo Objects, or simply MACHOs.

The best candidate for baryonic dark matter is white dwarf stars.2 White dwarfs are stars

that have a mass up to 1.4 solar masses (the Chandrasekhar limit) but are only about the size of the

earth. They are characterized by very high densities, high surface temperatures, but low

luminosities. Because of the high density they would be able to contribute a significant amount of

mass to the universe. However, with such low luminosities it is very difficult to see white dwarfs.

With these characteristics combined with the likely abundance, white dwarfs appear to be a likely

contributor to the dark matter in the universe.

Another possible contributor is brown dwarfs and Jupiter-sized objects (simply referred to

as Jupiters).2 Brown dwarfs are “aborted stars” whose cores never reached the threshold

temperature to start the nuclear fusion process of turning hydrogen into helium. They typically

have masses on the order of 1/10 the mass of our sun (or 1029 kg). Large objects such as Jupiter

(1027 kg) also fall into this category. (In fact, there are many astronomers who argue that Jupiter

should be classified as a brown dwarf). The only radiation they give off is due to gravitational

contraction, which is why they are difficult to detect if not located near us. However, in order to

be a significant contributor to the amount of dark matter in the universe it needs to be determined

how many there are. If all of the dark matter is composed of brown dwarfs there would need to be

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one for every 30 ly3 of space, many trillions over the entire Milky Way. However, the number of

known brown dwarfs and brown dwarf candidates in our section of the galaxy is exceedingly slim,

making it unlikely that the density of the galaxy's brown dwarf population accounts for all the dark

matter.2

There are two types of massive baryonic objects that at first glance appear to be perfect

candidates for baryonic dark matter: neutron stars and black holes. Neutron stars are very dense,

1.4 -3 solar masses with a radius of about 10 -15 km. Because neutron stars form from burnt-out

stars they don’t emit any light. High density and no luminosity should make them an ideal

candidate for baryonic dark matter. However, the stars that eventually become neutron stars are on

the order of 10 solar masses, which means that at least 7 solar masses of material is ejected during

the supernova. If there is a significant number of neutron stars in a galaxy, then a majority of the

galaxy's mass must have passed through a large number of early supernovae. This would have

lead to a larger abundance of the heavier elements than what is currently observed, since so much

material was recycled.2

The other seemingly good candidate, black holes, also has a high density and no

luminosity. However, massive black holes are generally frowned upon by astronomers as a viable

baryonic dark matter candidate, since they would cause velocities of any other objects in their

vicinity to increase dramatically. Since the component of velocities normal to the galactic disk

would also be amplified, spirals' disks would thicken. This is not observed.2

With the suspicion that still not all of the dark matter is accounted for, we turn to non-

baryonic candidates for answers. The non-baryonic candidates are neutral individual particles, as

opposed to the massive aggregates of the baryonic candidates. The lack of charge means there is

no electromagnetic interaction with other charged matter, and so there is no radiation emitted from

these particles.2 Non-baryonic dark matter is divided into two generic categories: Cold Dark

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Matter (CDM) and Hot Dark Matter (HDM). The “temperature” of dark matter is a reference to

the speed of its particles. Hot refers to particles moving at relativistic speeds, and cold refers to

more massive particles moving much slower than the speed of light.4 CDM is also referred to as

WIMPs (Weakly Interacting Massive Particles).

The best candidate for HDM is the neutrino, recently discovered to have mass.2 Neutrinos

are hypothetical particles predicted by the theorist Wolfgang Pauli in 1931. Pauli based his

prediction on the fact that energy and momentum did not appear to be conserved in certain

radioactive decays. He suggested that this missing energy might be carried off, unseen, by a

neutral particle which was escaping detection. Three years later, Enrico Fermi named this

theoretical particle the neutrino, meaning “little neutral one”. Scientists now believe there are six

kinds of neutrinos, one associated with electrons (ne-), one associated with muons (nµ ), one

associated with the tau particle (nt), and one associated with each of their antiparticles.5 Currently,

it is believed that there are 108 ne-/m3. If neutrinos do have a mass near its experimental upper

limit (1.8*10-5 MeV/c2), then it can contribute significantly to the overall mass of the universe.2

Another non-baryonic dark matter candidate is the axion, an extremely light hypothetical

particle whose name was taken from an old brand of laundry detergent.2 They were proposed

independently in 1978 by Steven Weinberg of the University of Texas (who proposed the name)

and Frank Wilczek of Princeton. Their belief was that axions were created through CP invariance:

Axions were produced in the early universe during a violation of CP

invariance. Three types of invariance apply to the laws of physics: Charge
invariance (C), the conservation of overall charge; Parity invariance (P), which
maintains that if the laws work for a certain system S, then they should hold for a
system S' spatially reflected through the origin; and Time invariance (T), which
maintains that the laws work when time is running either forwards or backwards.
The laws of physics are governed by CPT invariance (all three operating
simultaneously), but violations of P invariance and CP invariance exist. In the very
early universe, symmetries began to break down at some point, leading to a
violation of CP invariance. This CP invariance violation was accompanied by large-

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 scale production of axions; the number of axions produced is probably even more
than the number of neutrinos produced.2

The typical assumed mass for the axion6 is in the range of 10-6 eV to 10-4 eV. If axions

exist there would be 108 for every cm3 of space, which could account for a great deal of the dark

matter in the universe. Their weak interaction with normal matter could potentially allow them to

form dark matter clumps very early on.2 Unfortunately, scientists have yet to detect axions, though

several attempts have been made.

Detecting dark matter has proven to be quite difficult, but not impossible. The detection of

baryonic dark matter, such as white dwarfs, can be accomplished through gravitational lensing. It

is possible for light from a distant star (or quasar) to be deflected by the gravitational field of a

massive object, such as a galaxy or MACHO, producing a twin image of the star (see figure 1).

(figure 1)7

Because non-baryonic dark matter interacts so weakly with regular matter, detection of

HDM and CDM has proven to be much more difficult than detecting MACHOs. In May of 2000,

however, Raymond Davis, Jr. and Masatoshi Koshiba shared the Wolf Prize in Physics for

independently proving that it can be done.8 Davis developed the first large-scale radiochemical

neutrino detectors. He obtained the first measurement of the flux of neutrinos from the sun using a

400,000-liter tank of tetrachloroethylene in an abandoned gold mine. A handful of incoming

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neutrinos were captured by chlorine atoms, which were transformed into argon atoms through the

process of inverse β decay. Davis also developed the technique for extracting the small number of

Argon atoms from the tank – critical to the experiment’s success.8

Koshiba led the design and construction of the Kamiokande and its successor,

Superkamiokande. The approach used in these detectors was to record the Cerenkov radiation

given off by electrons, positrons, and muons created when neutrinos scatter in the detector’s large

tanks of highly purified water.8 The detectors provided the recording of the arrival time, energy,

and direction of the incoming neutrinos.

Italian and Chinese experimenters from the DAMA (DArk MAtter search) collaboration

have set out to find WIMPs of mass 50 times greater than the proton.9 WIMPs have no charge and

no strong interactions, but they do occasionally suffer from head-on elastic collisions with nuclei.

The DAMA researchers are looking for such collisions in an array of sodium-iodide crystals of

mass 100 kg. The scintillations from the nuclear recoils in the crystals are registered by a series of

phototubes. Every effort is made to minimize the much larger effect of recoiling nuclei due to the

unwanted background gamma radiation. The experiment is performed underground in chambers

where only the most energetic cosmic rays can reach the crystals. The researchers look at the low

energy recoils, assuming that those will be the ones resulting from interactions with WIMPs.

Because the earth moves with a periodic velocity with respect the presumed “halo” of dark

matter enveloping the galaxy, DAMA researchers look for seasonal changes in the strength of the

low-energy recoils. Over a period of four years a fluctuation of less than 1% was detected with the

correct phase and period to be a seasonal variation. However, a seasonal effect can be produced

by many factors: temperature, time-varying efficiencies, etc. DAMA has ruled out as many factors

as possible and plans to continue to improve the experiment by increasing the detector mass to 250

kg.9

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 Another group trying to detect WIMPs is CDMS (Cryogenic Dark Matter Search). The

CDMS experiment relies on a newer technology developed over the past decade for this and other

astrophysical applications – cryogenic solid-state detectors.9 Like the DAMA experiment, the

CDMS experiment is designed to detect the recoil of nuclei from interactions with WIMPs. The

setup contains two cryogenic detectors made of germanium. By using superconducting transition-

edge thermometers the detectors measure heat deposited by the recoil of a single nucleus. To

measure a temperature so small the apparatus must be cooled below 50mK. However, the

experiment is suffering from the same difficulties of the DAMA experiment (background

radiation) which has prevented any positive results. Currently, the CDMS detectors are a mere 10

meters below the surface, but plans to install detectors in the Soudan Mine in Minnesota are under

way. In the mine, the thick overburden will virtually eliminate the flux of unwanted background

radiation.9

However, with dark matter detection processes still in their infancy, scientists are left with

inconclusive answers as to what dark matter is made of. The vast quantities of non-baryonic

particles in the universe leads to the general consensus among theorists that over 90% of dark

matter is non-baryonic particles.8 Michael S. Turner of the department of Physics and Astronomy

and Astrophysics at the University of Chicago concludes that, “The theorists’ prejudice of a flat

Universe dominated by non-baryonic dark matter is at present just that! However… the theorists’

prejudice is well motivated by both theoretical and observational considerations; and most

importantly, the particle dark matter hypothesis can and is being tested.”6 So, as experiments get

more sophisticated and theories become more refined, scientists are finding that most of the

substance that makes up our universe is hidden from view. However, cosmologists and particle

physicists alike are optimistic that we are well on our way to uncovering the mystery of dark

matter.

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 Works Cited
1. Stephen Hawking’s Universe, http://www.pbs.org/wnet/hawking/strange/html/dark.html

(1997) by the Educational Broadcasting Corporation.

2. http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~agm/darkmtr.html#hist (1996-7) on dark matter candidates

by Alex Gary Markowitz

3. P. Tipler, and R. Llewellyn, Modern Physics, 3rd ed. (W.H. Freeman and

Company, New York, 1999) pp. 614-615.

4. Stephen Hawking’s Universe, http://www.pbs.org/wnet/hawking/strange/html/hotcold.html

(1997) by the Educational Broadcasting Corporation.

5. P. Tipler, and R. Llewellyn, Modern Physics, 3rd ed. (W.H. Freeman and

Company, New York, 1999) pp. 526.

6. Michael S. Turner, “Dark Matter: Theoretical Perspectives”, Proceedings of

the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, (June

1993) Vol. 90, pp. 4827-34.

7. http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/features/news/grav_lens.html (on gravitational

lensing)

8. Jim Dawson, “Pioneering Neutrino Astronomers to Share 2000 Wolf Prize in

Physics”, Physics Today, March 2000, pp. 91.

9. Barbara Goss Levi, “Explorers Focus More Sharply on Their Prey: Weakly

Interacting Dark Matter”, Physics Today, April 2000, pp. 17.