Neutrino Detectors May Unlock the Search for Light Dark Matter, Physicists Say

Physicists are now proposing to use detectors for ghostly particles, which are typically used to detect the Sun and the universe, to detect light dark matter. This effort aims to detect the substance that constitutes most of the universe, dark matter, which has never been directly observed. Given the ability to put these giant instruments to new uses, scientists expect to investigate dark matter particles too light to be detected by conventional methods.

Repurposing Neutrino Telescopes for Dark Matter

According to the paper, neutrino​‍​‌‍​‍‌​‍​‌‍​‍‌ observatories like JUNO, Borexino, and SNO+ are large underground detectors packed with scintillating liquids and a few thousand highly sensitive light sensors. Although these instruments are made to detect neutrinos - very small particles that rarely interact with matter—researchers propose that these installations might find sub-GeV dark matter particles by looking for faint yearly changes in their background signals.

As these detectors have very large target masses and very low energy thresholds, in some mass ranges, they could become a kind of competition to the existing dark matter experiments, particularly in the case of lighter particles that are difficult to detect by other ​‍​‌‍​‍‌​‍​‌‍​‍‌technologies.

Why This Approach Matters

Direct​‍​‌‍​‍‌​‍​‌‍​‍‌ dark matter experiments such as LUX-ZEPLIN are imposing more and more strict limits but have not yet detected definite dark matter signals. The addition of neutrino detectors provides a complementary strategy that could narrow down the region where dark matter is hiding or even result in its discovery. Several observatories globally might also verify any signals that are detected, thus reassuring the results.

Although the quest is difficult, this pioneering deployment of already available devices demonstrates how scientists are extending the limits in the search for the most mysterious constituents of the ​‍​‌‍​‍‌​‍​‌‍​‍‌cosmos.