IIT Guwahati Researchers Delve Into Mystery Of Dark Matter And Neutrinos

Guwahati: Distinctive similarities between the nature of dark matter and neutrinos have been discovered by researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati.

It is to be noted that neutrinos is one of the most abundant particles in the universe.

The team's findings demonstrated that the origin and production of dark matter was significantly related to the origin of neutrino mass. This discovery also got published in the Physical Review Letters, a leading international journal.

A neutrino is a subatomic particle and it also shares similarities with an electron. But, unlike electrons, it has no electrical charge whatsoever and has a very small mass, which might even be as low as zero. Also, they are perhaps the most elusive particles.

"Though 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," Professor Arunansu Sil, Department of Physics, IIT Guwahati said.

Professor Arunansu also added that their 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.

He also went on to say that this study 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.

The presence of dark matter in our universe have been speculated by Physicists for ages.

The existence of dark matter is inferred from its gravitational effect on visible matter, which is supposed to constitute 27 per cent of the Universe.

But still, very little is known about the mysteries of dark matter due to lack of direct evidence in support of dark matter so far.

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