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Robert Scherrer, left, andChiu Man Ho. (Joe Howell /

 Van derbilt )

New, simple theory may explain

mysterious dark matterbyDavid Salisbury | Posted on Monday, Jun. 10, 2013 — 3:50 PM

 Abell 5 20 i s a gigantic m erger of ga lax y clu sters located 2 .4 billion light y ears awa y . It appea rs tohave left behind a large clump of dark matter. (Space Telescope Science Institute)

Most of the matter in the universe may be made out of particles that possess an unusual,

donut-shaped electromagnetic field called an anapole.

This proposal, which endows dark matter particles with a rare form of electromagnetism, has

been strengthened by a detailed analysis performed by a pair of theoretical physicists atVanderbilt University: Professor Robert Scherrer  and post-doctoral fellow Chiu Man Ho. An

article about the research was published online last month by the journal Physics Letters B.

“There are a great many different theories about the nature of dark matter. What I like about

this theory is its simplicity, uniqueness and the fact that it can be tested,” said Scherrer.

Elusive particle

In the article, titled “Anapole Dark Matter,” the physicists

propose that dark matter, an invisible form of matter that

makes up 85 percent of the all the matter in the universe,

may be made out of a type of basic particle called theMajorana fermion. The particle’s existence was predicted in

the 1930’s but has stubbornly resisted detection.

 A number of physicists have suggested that dark matter is

made from Majorana part icles, but Scherrer and Ho have

performed detailed calculations that demonstrate that these

particles are uniquely suited to possess a rare, donut-shaped

type of electromagnetic field called an anapole. This field

gives them properties that differ from those of particles that possess the more common fields

possessing two poles (north and south, positive and negative) and explains why they are so

difficult to detect.

Common electromagnetism, not exotic forces

“Most models for dark matter assume that it interacts through exotic forces that we do not

encounter in everyday life. Anapole dark matter makes use of ordinary electromagnetism that

you learned about in school – the same force that makes magnets stick to your refrigerator or 

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 Life, Earth and Space, Research anapole,

 Arts and Science, astronomy, Chiu Man Ho, dark

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Majorana particles, physics, Robert Scherrer 

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New, simple theory may explain mysterious dark matter | Research News @ Vanderbilt | Vanderbilt University 12/9/2013

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Comparison of an a napole field withcommon electric and magnetic dipoles.The anapole field, top, is generated by atoroidal electrical cur rent. As a result, t hefield is confined within the torus, instead of spreading out like the fields generated by conv entional electric a nd magneticdipoles. (Micha el Smelt zer / Vanderbilt)

makes a balloon rubbed on your hair stick to the ceiling,” said Scherrer. “Further, the model

makes very specific predictions about the rate at which it should show up in the vast dark

matter detectors that are bur ied underground all over the world. These predictions show that

soon the existence of anapole dark matter should either be discovered or ruled out by these

experiments.”

Fermions are particles like the electron and quark, which are the building blocks of matter.

Their existence was predicted by Paul Dirac in 1928. Ten years later, shortly before he

disappeared mysteriously at sea, Italian physicist Ettore Majorana produced a variation of 

Dirac’s formulation that predicts the existence of an electrically neutral fermion. Since then,

physicists have been searching for Majorana fermions. The primary candidate has been the

neutrino, but scientists have been unable to determine the basic nature of this elusive

particle.

Invisible to telescopes

The existence of dark matter was also first proposed in the 1930’s to explain discrepancies in

the rotational rate of galactic clusters. Subsequently, astronomers have discovered that the

rate that stars rotate around individual galaxies is similarly out of sync. Detailed observations

have shown that stars far from the center of galaxies are moving at much higher velocities

than can be explained by the amount of visible matter that the galaxies contain. Assuming that

they contain a large amount of invisible “dark” matter is the most straightforward way to

explain these discrepancies.

Scientists hypothesize that dark matter cannot be

seen in telescopes because it does not interact

very strongly with light and other electromagnetic

radiation. In fact, astronomical observations have

basically ruled out the possibility that dark matter 

particles carry electrical charges.

More recently, though, several physicists have

examined dark matter particles that don’t carry

electrical charges, but have electric or magnetic

dipoles. The only problem is that even these

more complicated models are ruled out for 

Majorana particles. That is one of the reasons

that Ho and Scherrer took a closer look at dark

matter with an anapole magnetic moment.

“Although Majorana fermions are electrically

neutral, fundamental symmetries of nature forbid

them from acquiring any electromagnetic

properties except the anapole,” Ho said.

The existence of a magnetic anapole was

predicted by the Soviet physicist Yakov

Zel’dovich in 1958. Since then it has been

observed in the magnetic structure of the nuclei

of cesium-133 and ytterbium-174 atoms.

Particles with familiar electrical and magnetic

dipoles, interact with electromagnetic fields even when they are stationary. Particles with

anapole fields don’t. They must be moving before they interact and the faster they move the

stronger the interaction. As a result, anapole particles would have been have been much

more interactive during the early days of the universe and would have become less and less

interactive as the universe expanded and cooled.

The anapole dark matter particles suggested by Ho and Scherrer would annihilate in the early

universe just like other proposed dark matter particles, and the left-over particles from the

process would form the dark matter we see today. But because dark matter is moving so

much more slowly at the present day, and because the anapole interaction depends on how

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fast it moves, these particles would have escaped detection so far, but only just barely.

The research was funded in part by Department of Energy grant DE-FG05-85ER40226.

Contact: 

David Salisbury, (615) 322-NEWS

david.salisbury@vanderbilt.edu

Fe02Dream

I wonder- what impact does this theory have on the “expanding or 

collapsing universe” debate?

Jonny O

Yes, it’s interesting. Previously, the accelerated expansion of the

universe was thought to be caused by dark matter, but if dark

matter is “slowing down” as the article suggests, the expansion

rate logically should be as well.

LeickR Sorry, but you’re conflating dark matter and dark energy.

Dark energy is theorized to be driving the accelerated

expansion of the universe, not dark matter.

Dark matter, on the other hand, would be expected to

“cool”, or “slow down”, as the universe expands, just like

ordinary matter.

Rebbman72 

Since they have gotten to absolute zero, and into

negative K, it is possible that might exist In the dark

matter? Further is it possible absolute darkness also

exists ? Since time is essentially measured by the

speed of light ( though photons may move faster than

that? ) wouldn’t dark matter be without time? Or the

“now?” That being a possibility wouldn’t we live in the

“not now?”

Supposedly it is never less that 2.7 K , but that notion is

not the case anymore, if we can produce it in a lab here,

would exist elsewhere?

Steve McAbee

Magnetic forces seem to be becoming the key. I expect that unlocking

the the secrets of electromagnetism will show us the way to inter-stellar 

travel.

buffonelder101

how do you get magnetic forces without moving charge?

 Adam

Thank you for the (article) Mr. Salisbury.

Kenith Adams

If most of the universe is comprised of dark matter doesn’t that make our 

electro magnetic fields the rare ones and not vice versa as the article

states?

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Mystgreen

 Agreed. Something that makes up 85% of the universe isn’t

“rare”.

Jacob

I’ve read mixed reports on that, I’ve also seen it

represented as 23%, much more frequently in fact. 85%

may just be downright wrong.

Chris Stinnett 

We amateur astronomers will doubtless be thrilled by this model, yet I’m

still a little puzzled. Let me see if I can get this straight: undetectable

particles of pretend matter that can’t be measured even though it is

thought to make up 85% of the universe may actually be composed of 

magnetically theorized, but never discovered, matter that has been

“examined” by scientists in their imaginations fueled by speculative

computer models that may or may not accurately describe something that

may or may not exist but that is currently held responsible for things we

can’t understand.

OK, at least it’s science and not, say, magic or alchemy. Or, God forbid,

religious faith.

Carlos

“Let me see if I can get this straight: an unseen force binds

particles together via their mass, and its magnitude is

proportional to the inverse square of their distance. Calculations

using speculative computational models can possibly predict the

trajectories of objects for all time based solely on the initial

conditions? The models can someday be used to possibly send

unmanned probes to the ends of the solar system?”

Some guy before Galileo, Kepler and Newton…

martykayzee

You candidly and concisely express your ignorance. How

refreshing.

buffonelder101

i thought this was already science fact /sarcasm

buffonelder101

why don’t they just call this a magnetic monopole?… oh wait then they

would have to eat all the bs they have been spewing for years…. get

back to the aether people… you have washed away in a sea of relativity

and have lost all objectivity

Pete

I’m sure you have some solid mathematics to disprove General

Relativity and to explain the observations made in Quantum

Physics.

Dustin Ddraig 

Probably because it’s not a monopole. A normal magnet (dipole)

has two poles, a monopole has one pole, and an anapole has

zero poles (i.e., zero that can interact with other magnets).

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Calling it a monopole is just wrong.

Peter Parker 

This sounds really fascinating! I wish the article would have elaborated on

what other predictions (practical or impractical) can be made if dark

matter are indeed anapole particles.

fire115 

The effects of dark matter have been reproduced in lab enviorment in anunrelated experiment, yet no one is looking into it.

GOOGLE this: Quantum gas goes below absolute zero

“For instance, Rosch and his colleagues have calculated that whereas

clouds of atoms would normally be pulled downwards by gravity, if part of 

the cloud is at a negative absolute temperature, some atoms will move

upwards, apparently defying gravity4.

 Another peculiarity of the sub-absolute-zero gas is that it mimics ‘dark

energy’, the mysterious force that pushes the Universe to expand at an

ever-faster rate against the inward pull of gravity. Schneider notes that

the attractive atoms in the gas produced by the team also want to

collapse inwards, but do not because the negative absolute temperature

stabilises them. “It’s interesting that this weird feature pops up in the

Universe and also in the lab,” he says. “This may be something that

cosmologists should look at more closely.””

…and surprise surprise the universe is very cold place, i wonder how

long it will take for sientists to acatualy talk to each other about this theory

on dark matter.

Mark 

The part I find most disturbing is, ‘Detailed observations have shown that

stars far from the center of galaxies are moving at much higher velocities

than can be explained by the amount of visible matter that the galaxies

contain. Assuming that they contain a large amount of invisible “dark”

matter is the most straightforward way to explain these discrepancies.’

So, what the article says is because astronomers and physicists can’t

explain what they are observing based on what they know, they decide

that there is matter they can’t observe or describe which is affecting thismovement. Sounds plausible, until you discover that the amount of matter 

needed to make their hypothesis correct is 5 times what they can see

and it has a neutral electric charge! And they say that science doesn’t

require faith! Hilarious!

martykayzee

Faith rejects evidence. Science requires it.

alec o shea

Evolution is a theory it has never been proven but is

taught as if it is fact

Rick Shinholt 

If dark matter is invisible to the telescope but is there.. Then you would

think that we should be running into dark matter all the time. since we are

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running into dark matter all the time then, it must be all around us. Just

like flatland we are not able to see from our angle. I think it dimensional. I

think it may be a time thing really. Just like radio waves we can use

different frequencies to transmit multiple audio steams then maybe time

has a multiple frequencies and there is different time lines. Think about it

multiple time lines even on this earth. I think you can see this when quark

travel at maybe faster then time and disappear (Different time line

maybe) when atom are smashed together. Of course i could just be talk

out of my…

Zaoldyeck 

Dark matter is a lot weirder than you seem to think, however the

‘flatland’ reference scares me a bit, because ‘what the bleep do

we know’ massacred a lot of physics.

First, dark matter actually does constitute more of the universe

than we do, ‘matter’ only has roughly 5% of the energy density of 

the universe, while ‘dark matter’ has roughly 20%. (The vast

majority is in ‘dark energy’, which is the ‘cosmological constant’in our models, and that’s about all we really know so far about

dark energy.)

The reason it is ‘invisible’ is because it doesn’t interact with the

electromagnetic spectrum. So since most astronomical research

is conducted using light, be it infrared, visible, x-ray, etc, you

can’t see something that doesn’t interact with light.

You CAN however see the effects of dark matter. We see it in

galactic rotation curves. Consider you’d expect a galaxy acting

like a solar system, with a large center of mass and bodies

rotating around it. Well look at Pluto, according to newtonian

mechanics you’d expect the planets far away to have much

longer orbits.

But that doesn’t happen on galactic scales. Instead the rotation

speed stays constant! The only way we can really explain this is

if there’s a lot more mass, but it’s roughly evenly distributed

throughout the galaxy.

We also have some models for possible creation of dark matter,

hints coming from the excess signal in the Higgs diphoton

channel, but that’s another story entirely.

PS, quarks can’t travel “faster than time”, time’s a dimension,

you can’t travel “faster than space”. The relevant idea is travelling

faster than light, but in general, no massive object (of which

quarks qualify) can be accelerated to the speed of light.

Coherent and demonstrated ‘warp’ models are still quite a ways

away. Although it’d be nice if we spent more money researching

new challenging scientific ventures.

Chris Stinnett 

Hey, Pete.

No evidence? Really? The greatest minds of the past 2,000 years have

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focused their towering intellects upon Christianity. Some you might not be

familiar with (Anselm, Aquinas, Alvin Plantinga, John Warwick

Montgomery); others you’d recognize but never suspect them to be

believers (Newton, Pasteur, Priestly). All of science is founded in a

confident expectation that the universe is governed by rules that are

understandable and explainable. It’s no coincidence that science

flourished where Christianity laid a foundation of reason, thought, and a

belief in a consistent Creator. I seriously doubt that you have the slightest

inkling of the overwhelming scholarship devoted to the intellectual

underpinnings of Christianity–and I seriously doubt that you will bother to

investigate it. One thing I ask of you: please do not presume that because

you don’t know something that means that nobody knows. Real scientists

know that ignorance is not evidence of anything except ignorance.

Carlos

Perhaps we could ask the likes of Galileo whether Christianity

laid the foundations for his brand of independent scientific

thought.

martykayzee

If they comprise 85% of the matter in the universe, how are they rare or 

unusual?

fire115 

You seem to miss the point that neither Dark Energy or Dark Matter were

never definitively defined and could be interrelated if not the same thing.

From nassa:

“More is unknown than is known. We know how much dark energy there

is because we know how it affects the Universe’s expansion. Other than

that, it is a complete mystery. But it is an important mystery. It turns out

that roughly 68% of the Universe is dark energy. Dark matter makes up

about 27%….

 Another explanation for dark energy is that it is a new kind of dynamical

energy fluid or field, something that fills all of space but something whose

effect on the expansion of the Universe is the opposite of that of matter 

and normal energy. Some theorists have named this “quintessence,”

after the fifth element of the Greek philosophers. But, if quintessence is

the answer, we still don’t know what it is like, what it interacts with, or why

it exists. So the

mystery continues. ”

Translation they have no clue and it seem to me from everything i have

read on the news updates on this subject matter, no detector, lab,

experiment or satilite ever had been able to detect even one of them or 

anything that would even point to either, everything and everybody thus far 

failed to show what they or it really is. Clearly we are looking it from the

wrong prespective would it not make sence to investigate the first and the

only experiment that can actually explain the physics of universeexpansion. To simply say “So you’re looking at 2 different things.” and

throw out one of the only physical clues in decades is ignorant.

 Andy Puckett, PhD

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 As a Vanderbilt alumnus in physics, I respectfully submit that your 

diagram of the anapole magnetic field seems backwards. You may have

your colors – and therefore your electric/magnetic fields – swapped. In

the scientific paper by the authors, they say, “It is related to the toroidal

dipole moment, which corresponds to a solenoid with the ends joined

into a torus, producing an azimuthal magnetic field”. That suggests to me

that your blue lines should be electric fields (and therefore be changed to

red to match the bottom two parts of the diagram), and your red lines

should be magnetic fields (and should change to blue). As drawn, your 

“anapole” case looks too much like the magnetic field of a short but

ordinary solenoid, i.e., an electromagnet.

David Salisbury 

Thanks for pointing out the inconsistency. We have corrected it.

Edohiguma

Donut-shaped? Does this mean The Simpsons were right all along?!

Dwight Carrell 

Metallic hydrogen.

Dwight Carrell 

Ultra-stable solid metallic hydrogen.

Walt Ballard 

Regardless of what kind of particles “Dark Matter” is made of, I propose

the because it makes up 85% of the universe, that it is something that we

fail to see because it’s right in front of our faces. Albert Einstein was the

first to propose the substance. He called it SPACE/TIME! It is so

common that we look through it just as a fish looks through water and welook through air.

I’ll even go a step further, and propose that ALL matter is made up of 

“SPACE/TIME” simply knotted up and concentrated into clumps making

up the various sub-atomic particles that make up the neutrons and

electrons of atoms, that make up the molecules that in turn great all

objects of mass.

This would also apply to the missing “Dark Energy” for all particles,

regardless of size, contain energy. It’s what eventually draws them

together into clumps of matter, OR conversely “replies” matter from each

other.

I’ll confess, I’m not a trained scientist, and I’m not seeking recognition for 

this idea. I’ve watched a LOT of science shows discussing this topic and

seeing the evidence presented with a less cluttered perspective presents

me with this simple and straightforward solution. It seems like the ONLY

logical answer to why 85% percent of the universe’s mass is dark,

seemingly undetectable.

 ANYONE that finds this theory at all intriguing, PLEASE feel free to

pursue it as your own if you would like. A footnote might be nice, but I am

not looking for recognition. I just want someone to seriously investigate or 

pursue this proposal. Something inside me is eating at me,

SCREAMING, “This is VITALLY important to our advancement in

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astrophysics! I believe that it will revolutionize our perception of the

universe and our understanding of it. Perhaps even open the door to

interstellar space travel someday. I also suspect it might alter our 

understanding of the “speed of light”.

Think about it. It has been proven that light is affected by mass. Mass can

bend light. A great enough mass can even stop, and reverse the direction

of light! (Black Holes) So, why couldn’t light be slowed down as it passes

through regions with high concentrations of “Space/Time”, aka, mass and

energy. Then, inversely speed up as it passes through “LOW” densities

of “Space/Time” (The gaps between galaxies.)

Just, think about it.

Thank you for indulging my tirade.

This has been gnawing at me for years now, and I’ve been searching for 

some place I could present it that someone with the expertise to follow up

on it might see it.

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