Traces of dark matter discovered by KTH experiment
The international satellite experiment Pamela, which was partially constructed by astrophysicists at KTH, may have discovered particles that form space’s dark matter. This discovery was published in this week’s edition of the scientific journal Nature.
The Pamela Experiment, which was partially constructed at KTH’s Department of Astroparticle Physics, is flying on a path around the earth mounted on a Russian remote observation satellite. Pamela’s task is to gather cosmic particles from space and measure how much energy they are carrying.
According to the information released in Nature, the results of Pamela’s measurements of positrons – antimatter’s equivalent to electrons – may provide direct evidence that it is unknown particles that are behind dark matter. According to previous assumptions it had been calculated that space consists of approximately 25 percent dark matter.
“We have seen an increase in the positron share of cosmic particle streams with the highest energy levels. We have proved that the positron share is increasing. This could depend on several things. Perhaps there are dark matter particles that annihilate each other in the halo of the galaxy. This could be quite a spectacular solution,” says Mark Pearce, Professor at the Division of Astroparticle Physics and research manager of the Swedish part of Pamela.
Pamela is an international cooperative project involving researchers from Italy, Russia and Germany. The Swedish National Space Board is also involved on behalf of Sweden. KTH’s Astroparticle Physics Group is also participating in the analysis of the results of Pamela’s measurements of cosmic particle streams.
Christer Gummeson