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physicistKen37 karma

Sure! Basically we have proof that there is something existing in the galaxy, but have no idea what it is. So what I do is try to find some way to have that dark matter give us evidence that it actually exists. So far all the evidence is just based on our observations of the influence on other things, but we want to see it on its own directly.

physicistKen26 karma

This is a fantastic question. What we know about the dark matter is that it is very unlikely to interact in our detectors. So if we were to run our experiments on the surface, we would see all of the many things (like background radiation) going on around us all the time instead of the dark matter we want to see. Going underground removes most of those background events and lets us focus in on just the dark matter (hopefully...).

physicistKen16 karma

OK, so the lab is apparently kept at 16C, and the unexposed rock is 45C. Science is all about corrections.

physicistKen14 karma

You can absolutely feel the difference. The pressure 2km underground is about 30% higher than on the surface, so on the way down your ears pop a lot and you can feel the difference. It's also pretty hot since the walls of the mine are about 40C. Fortunately we keep our labs air conditioned to a comfortable 20C (mostly to save the experiments, not the physicists). And the lift (called a "cage" here) is not that long. It can take about 3.5 minutes to get all the way down if you don't stop.

This is very neutrino-y in it's interaction since we look for the dark matter to interact with a nucleus and it's actually the movement of that nucleus that we are hoping to see.

The current theories that we are looking for are certainly testable, but there are many different theories out there that may not be. I'll just keep hoping that it's something that can be seen in my detector (or one like it I guess).

physicistKen11 karma

This is a great question. I think it is probably real (I wasn't involved with that research, but good scientists are) and I think it's pretty cool. In fact, I think of it more as the "exception that proves the rule" since there are so few galaxies out there without dark matter and they are so anomalous that we can pick them out of the huge surveys of astronomical objects.