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A groundbreaking study published in Nature by researchers from King’s College London, Harvard University, UC Berkeley, and other institutions lays the foundation for what may become the most accurate dark matter detector yet.
Dark matter, which may account for up to 85% of the universe’s total mass, remains one of the greatest mysteries in physics. Though its presence is inferred from gravitational effects, it has never been directly observed. One of the most promising candidates for dark matter is the axion—a hypothetical, lightweight particle that interacts extremely weakly with normal matter.
Axions are believed to behave like waves, but scientists are still unsure where they fall on the electromagnetic spectrum. Their frequency could range from audible kilohertz tones to extremely high terahertz frequencies. This uncertainty has made detecting them especially challenging.
The new research introduces a concept the team refers to as a "cosmic car radio"—a device that could detect axions by tuning into their frequency. At the heart of this design is an Axion Quasiparticle (AQ), a material structure capable of responding to axion-like signals. When the AQ material resonates with the frequency of an axion, it emits a faint light signal. The researchers believe this light could be the key to finally observing dark matter.
“This detector is like a radio, scanning through the frequencies of our galaxy to find the one that matches the axion,” said Dr. David Marsh, Ernest Rutherford Fellow at King’s College London and co-author of the study. “We already have the technology—we just need to scale it up.”
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The team estimates that within five years, they could build a large enough AQ-based detector to begin the search. From there, it could take another decade to comb through the high-frequency terahertz spectrum where many believe dark matter may be hidden.
To develop the AQ, the scientists used manganese bismuth telluride (MnBi₂Te₄), a material with unusual electronic and magnetic properties. The material was exfoliated down to just a few atomic layers to make it sensitive enough to detect axion signals. “MnBi₂Te₄ is extremely sensitive to its environment, so we had to reduce it to thin, two-dimensional layers to fine-tune its behavior,” explained Jian-Xiang Qiu, lead author from Harvard University. “That’s what allows us to observe these fascinating quantum interactions, including how they might connect to axions.”
According to Marsh, the momentum behind axion research is building rapidly. “The number of scientific papers on axions today is comparable to the surge in Higgs-Boson papers just before its discovery,” he said. “The idea that axions could be detected through radio-like frequencies was first proposed in 1983, and now we’re finally on the verge of tuning into them. It’s a thrilling time in the search for dark matter.”
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Posted 4-21-2025 23:14:23
