JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Scientists know dark matter exists, but they can’t see it. Now, researchers at the University of North Florida will take a closer look thanks to a nearly $600,000 grant.
Doctors Chris Kelso and Greg Wurtz, both UNF physics professors, will serve as part of a global research team that will create a convergence framework to establish whether evidence of interactions between dark matter and ordinary matter can be found. They accomplish to do this through “mineral detection.”
According to UNF, mineral detection could provide a path to determining what dark matter is by studying interactions of crystals in rock samples that have been exposed to dark matter for billions of years.
“If dark matter does interact with the atoms in the rock it will create damage features,” Kelso told News4JAX.
Kelso will do the theory and analysis research for the project. Wurtz will be looking for the damage and executing the experiments like atomic force microscopy, a very high-resolution scan for the rocks.
Research shows there is five times as much dark matter as ordinary matter in the universe.
While ordinary matter makes up everything people can see, like stars, planets, and ourselves; dark matter is a hypothetical form of matter that has yet to be directly observed and has only been previously detected through its gravitational influence on visible matter.
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This project will test the feasibility of the mineral detection approach of observing interactions between ordinary and dark matter. The team aims to develop a new path for advancing our understanding of the mysteries of dark matter.
The global research team includes professionals from UNF, Virginia Tech, University of Michigan, Stanford University, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, University of Texas Austin, University of Maryland, INFN Ferrara in Italy, University of Zurich in Switzerland, and Jozef Stefan Institute in Germany.
The five-year grant will also fully fund tuition for four students in UNF’s interdisciplinary Master of Science degree program in Materials Science and Engineering.