Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer zeroes in on dark matter

BBC News, Jonathan Amos, Science correspondent, 3 April 2013

Related Stories

• All the Universe's matter is mapped
• Stunning new view of 'oldest light'
• 'Space LHC' to release first results

The AMS was taken up to the ISS in 2011

A $2bn experiment on the space station has made observations that could prove to be the first signs of dark matter, a mysterious component of the Universe.

The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) surveys the sky for high-energy particles, or cosmic rays.

It has seen evidence of what may prove to be dark matter colliding with itself in what is known as "annihilation".

But scientists stress a precise description of this mysterious cosmic component is still some way off.

"It could take a few more years," AMS deputy spokesman Roberto Battiston, a professor of physics at the University of Perugia, told BBC News.

Dark matter accounts for most of the mass in the Universe.

It cannot be seen directly with telescopes, but astronomers know it to be out there because of the gravitational effects it has on the matter we can see.

Galaxies, for example, could not rotate the way they do and hold their shape without the presence of dark matter.

The AMS - a particle physics machine nicknamed the "Space LHC" in reference to the Large Hadron Collider here on Earth - has been hunting for some indirect measures of dark matter's properties.

It counts the numbers of electrons and their anti-matter counterparts - known as positrons - falling on an array of detectors.

Theory suggests that showers of these particles should be produced when dark-matter particles collide somewhere in space and destroy each other.

In a paper in the journal Physical Review Letters, the AMS team reports the observation of a slight excess of positrons in the positron-electron count - an outcome expected of these dark matter annihilations.

Of particle masses and energies

- Confusingly, particle physicists speak of
  both particle masses and their energies
  in terms of the energy unit called an
  electronvolt

- For example, the accelerator called the
  Large Hadron Collider speeds protons to
  energies of trillions of electronvolts

- Yet, when the particle called the Higgs
  boson was discovered there, scientists said
  it had a mass of about 125 billion
  electronvolts

- This is actually physicists' shorthand, which
  arises from "mass-energy equivalence" -
  Albert Einstein's most famous equation

- The actual mass is found by dividing by
  the square of the speed of light - for the
  Higgs boson, that is about
  0.0000000000000000000003 g

The group also says the positrons fall on the AMS from all directions in the sky with no particular variation over time.

This is important because specific locations or timing variations in the signal could indicate a more conventional source for the particles, such as a pulsar (a type of neutron star) rather than dark matter.

The AMS was placed on the International Space Station in 2011. The longer it operates, the better its statistics will be and the more definitive scientists can be in their statements.

But lead spokesman, Prof Sam Ting, said the AMS Collaboration would proceed slowly.

"It took us 18 years to do this experiment and we want to do it very carefully," he told a seminar at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics (Cern) in Geneva.

"We will publish things when we are absolutely sure."

The Physical Review Letters paper reports the positron-electron count in the energy range of 0.5 to 350 gigaelectronvolts (GeV).

The behaviour of the positron excess across this energy spectrum fits with the researchers' expectations. However, the "smoking gun" signature would be to see a rise in this ratio and then a dramatic fall. This has yet to be observed.

"At the moment, all we can say is that the (dark matter) particles could have a mass of several hundred gigaelectronvolts, but there is much uncertainty," said Prof Battiston. (By way of comparison, a proton, the particle in the nucleus of every atom, has a mass of about 1 GeV).

Modern mysteries

The AMS is just one of several techniques being used by researchers to try to uncover the nature of dark matter.

There are laboratories on Earth that are attempting to make more direct detections as the elusive particles pass though containers of the elements xenon or argon, held deep underground.

The Large Hadron Collider, too, is involved in the hunt. It hopes to produce dark matter particles in its accelerator.

A precise description of this mysterious component is now an urgent objective for modern physics.

Normal matter, the material we can see with telescopes (all the stars and galaxies), contributes just 4.9% of the mass/energy density of the Universe.

Dark matter is a far bigger constituent, making up 26.8%. This figure was recently raised following studies of the cosmos by the European Space Agency's Planck telescope.

The value is now nearly a fifth up on previous estimates.

Dark energy is the component that contributes most to the mass/energy density of the Universe at 68.3%. Dark energy is the name given to the force thought to be accelerating the expansion of the Universe. Its character is even more obscure to science than dark matter.

THE ALPHA MAGNETIC SPECTROMETER (AMS-02)

Transition Radiation Detector determines highest-energy particle velocities

Silicon Trackers follow particle paths; how they bend reveals their charge

Permanent Magnet is core component of AMS and makes particles curve

Time-of-flight Counters determine lowest-energy particle velocities

Star Trackers scan star fields to establish AMS's orientation in space

Cerenkov Detector makes accurate velocity measurements of fast particles

Electromagnetic Calorimeter measures energy of impacting particles

Anti-coincidence Counter filters signal from unwanted side particles

$2bn machine to 'probe the unknown'

Related Article:

New data 'strongly indicates' particle is Higgs boson

"Recalibration of the Universe"– Jan 25, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Text Version)

“… The entire galaxy revolves as one plate, in a very counter-intuitive way. The stars and the constellations do not orbit within the rules of Newtonian physics that you are used to seeing all around you in your own solar system. For the stars and clusters in your galaxy, distance from the center does not matter. All the stars rotate as one. This is because the galaxy is entangled with the middle of itself. In that state, there is no time or distance. The change of consciousness on this planet has changed the center of the galaxy. This is because what happens here, dear one, is "known" by the center.

It's interesting to us what your reaction to all this is scientifically. You saw that the "creative event" of your Universe is missing some energy in order for it to have formed as it did. In addition, the unusual way the galaxy rotates, as I just stated, was also noted. So you have calculated that for all this to be in place, there has to be missing 3D matter, and you have given it a name - dark matter. How funny! Did you ever think that there could be a multidimensional effect going on that you now can observe and calculate - that has immense power, but can't be seen? It's not "matter" at all and it's not 3D. It's quantum energy.

Let me tell you something about physics. Yet again, I'll make it simple. Everything your scientists have seen in physics happens in pairs. At the moment, there are four laws of physics in your three-dimensional paradigm. They represent two pairs of energy types. Eventually, there will be six. At the center of your galaxy is what you call a black hole, but it is not a single thing. It is a duality. There is no such thing as "singularity". You might say it's one energy with two parts - a weak and a strong quantum force. And the strangest thing is it knows who you are. It is the creator engine. It's different in other galaxies than this one. It's unique.

The very physics of your galaxy is postured by what you do here. The astronomers can look into the cosmos and they will discover different physics in different galaxies. Could it be that there's something going on in the other galaxies like this one? I'm not going to answer that. 

“… By the way, what happens to the solar system when the magnetics shift? Now you start to see where astrology will begin to shift as well. There are those who will start to apply the quantum filter to astrology. It's happening now. What is your quantum sign? It's different than the three-dimensional sign. Oh, there'll come a day, dear ones, in science, where the scientists will be able to apply what I will call a quantum filter to alter what they see. This will be a filter developed for telescopes that involves a super-cooling of the filter itself. Astronomers will be able to look out into the cosmos and, for the first time, see quantum attributes.

The first thing they'll notice is two things in the center of the galaxy, not one. The next thing will be the colors around the Human Being. And science will start a whole new section called "The Study of the Human Auric Energy." All of these are coming.  …”

"Recalibration of Knowledge" – Jan 14, 2012 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: Channelling, God-Creator, Benevolent Design, New Energy, Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Reincarnation, Gaia, Old Energies (Africa,Terrorists, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela ... ), Weather, Rejuvenation, Akash, Nicolas Tesla / Einstein, Cold Fusion, Magnetics, Lemuria, Atomic Structure (Electrons, Particles, Polarity, Self Balancing, Magnetism, Higgs Boson), Entanglement, "Life is necessary for a Universe to exist and not the other way around", DNA, Humans (Baby getting ready, First Breath, Stem Cells, Embryonic Stem Cells, Rejuvenation), Global Unity, ... etc.) - (Text Version)

“ … Physicists say that electrons spin. They don't, and they can't. There's no surface on an electron, since they are energy. They don't spin, but instead have an electronic potential. Every single particle on this planet, everything you can see, all things in this Universe, are created with polarity. This is new information now. All things are created with polarity, and they're designed to be self-balancing. And because of the polarity of what you would call plus and minus, they move and try to balance themselves within a field - all things, both physical and other.

However, all polarities are prone to be biased by what I will call peer pressure. Electrons that carry (or spin with a polarity) of what you would call a certain kind of charge - we'll call it positive - are drawn to those that are negative so that they will null themselves out. They seek each other out to create the null of balance. They seek to be balanced, and if they are not, they are not happy. I use this word only to emphasize the condition of a particle of physics that does not find its balance. Even the unscientific can appreciate this.

But even with atoms, there are not always matched pairs of electrons, since there is no atomic rule that says that electrons will always be created in even numbers. So there will often be what I will call the odd one out and when that happens, the entire atom will then be charged positively or negatively, depending upon the odd one out. When this happens, this atom will seek out another atom, which has an odd one out of an opposite charge. That has a name: Magnetism. I've just explained magnetism. Now, science knows part of that already. What they have not realized yet, however, is that all things have a duality. They suspect it and there are theories that will show it soon enough, and I've given it to you today because it always has existed in someone's mind.

So from the very smallest to the very biggest, even the galaxy has duality. At the center of your galaxy, what you call the black hole, is a quantum push/pull engine, and I'm going to tell you in a minute why it's that way.

Here is a big question, and I will answer it right now. Why does everything have a polarity? Why would it be created this way, even down to the electron? The smallest thing, even to what you call the Higgs Bosen [God Particle] and the quarks, they all have polarity. There isn't a piece of nature that you're going to find that doesn't have polarity. Why? I will tell you why: Physicists will laugh. Not in ridicule, but in agreement. If it were not this way, the Universe would be a dull, boring place to be. Because, by creating a duality in every single particle, you create an active Universe that is self-balancing and is never at rest. If it were not this way, it would be static, unchanging, and non-creative. Therefore, without polarity, there would be no life. Life is created by having a duality, a polarity in atomic particles. Life is that which is necessary for the Universe to exist. There's no reason for physics without life - and you thought it was the other way around, didn't you? Life was an accident on one planet. Oh, how 3D of you! Life is the DESIGN..…”

Albert Einstein: The Brick Wall that Science Faces – AE in An Hour with an Angel - New

E=MC²  (MC2 to infinity [∞])

"... That one little symbol is rather important, is it not? For it speaks to the continuity and the infinite nature of creation and the universe. And here I had tried to squeeze it into a manageable form, when it was never intended to be so small.

So, I come this day in a very public forum to share that, not so much with light-workers, but this is the forum I am given to speak to the scientists, and so I take it and I give this to them..."