Physicists Changed Their Mind about Dark Matter Particles

Axions were introduced to the world of physics in the 1970’s, now researchers believe they might be the particles that make up dark matter. While early conceptions about axions have since been proven wrong, the particles are now making a comeback as the best motivated candidates for dark matter. Let’s find out why.

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[SabineHossenfelder]

This video comes with a quiz which you can take here:

You can now also create your own quizzes on my website. We are constantly working on bug fixes and extensions!

[tomkerruish]

It's commendable that you can talk so fairly about something you don't personally support. I salute your ability to do so.

[FredPlanatia]

i liked this episode, it explained some science, showed the connections between particle physics and astrophysics, and discussed experiments designed to test hypotheses. It had the right amount of Sabine pepper to make me chuckle several times and i learned something. Skepticism was there but so was humility. The right approach to science. thankyou!

[ericslavich]

"Except the needle is invisible and the haystack costs five billion dollars..." Almost made me spit out my breakfast laughing.

[MrTrancelator]

Frankly, WIMPS and Axions remind me of the dragons from the Third Sally (or the Dragons of Probability) from Stanislaw Lem's book "The Cyberiad': "Everyone knows that dragons don't exist. But while this simplistic formulation may satisfy the layman, it does not suffice for the scientific mind. The brilliant Cerebron, attacking the problem analytically, discovered three distinct kinds of dragon: the mythical, the chimerical, and the purely hypothetical. They were all, one might say, nonexistent, but each non-existed in an entirely different way."
EDIT: I see a bot has appeared to copy and rephrase my comment.

[Thomas-gk]

Some commenters are complaining that Sabine´s videos are too short. But she puts more content and information in seven minutes than you normally get served in a boring hour.

[DataIsBeautifulOfficial]

So the universe runs on invisible particles named after laundry detergent?

[TheLondekZdroj]

Axions are perfect because they are practically impossible to detect, making them ideal for fueling particle physics research until the heat death of the universe...

[ericberman]

I recall that back in the 1970s we used to regularly collide Axion detergent molecules suspended in dihydrogen monoxide, with short to medium length fatty acid molecules suspended in a fiber matrix, utilizing turbulent chaos colliders set to so-called wash cycles. After successful wash cycles, we would then subject the “loads” to ultra-high speed centrifugation (aka: “spin cycles”) followed by a “heavy rinse” cycle employing pure dihydrogen monoxide, followed by yet another ultra-high speed centrifugation.

We were quite successful utilizing the above procedure to change “dark matter” fabrics into “clean, bright” fabrics.

So, what’s with all the new “hubbub” about Axions?

[blinkingmanchannel]

Speaking only for myself, this one is right on the dot! Great mix of exploration of what's what, plus building up from my desired beginning point of evidence, rather than question. (Both are needed. And they interact like espresso and milk. I just like beginning with evidence.)

I feel like I was exactly ready for this one, too. So maybe you guys are writing these in sets now, and I'm tracking along okay. That would be cool! Great sponsor. I'm gonna subscribe to that.

And it's time for lunch. So somehow this is hitting my day exactly right! Keep going! And thank you!

[RegHoldsworth-rihh]

Love your style love the content love the honesty. Thx sabine

[TheTwober]

All I hear is that physicists seem to become desperate in finding a mathematical artifact that probably doesn't even exist.

[Earwaxfire]

Going through Physics graduate school in the 1980s was a nightmare. It was obvious that these ideas were gibberish. So I left the field after passing the PhD exam and did my doctorate molecular biology instead. It still pains me that so many of my brightest hard working friends wasted their lives on this. I hope today's physicists have some kind of hope.

[anarwally]

I enjoy your videos, even though I rarely completely understand them.

[halporter]

I remember a Scientific American article, 1976. I remember that WIMPS were the most likely candidate at that time. Also about that time there were attempts to estimate the “mass” of the universe and thus estimate its future—contraction or endless expansion—prior to dark energy. Now that it is becoming clear that the founding observations leading to dark energy hypothesis are at best problematic (thank you Subir and Sabine), and that much other supporting evidence appears to be somewhat (entirely?) circular, we seem to be cast back to concerns that observers were trying to resolve in the 1990s. In any event, it is clear that there has been no real progress towards explaining the processes that lead to dark energy since its “discovery”. There seems to be so little enthusiasm for releasing the core data before adjustments for local movements resulting in that has resulted in supposed supporting measurements, that these publications can be dismissed out of hand. I might have once been more measured in my evaluations—I was once a science writer, among other subjects—but at 77 I am impatient and more than a bit grumpy. Produce and explain your data in reproducible form. Explain reasonable difficulties, supported by evidence. Evade and be intellectually dismissed; preferably also barred from other grants for incompetence at the least. There don’t seem to be any remaining theories of dark energy that aren’t rotting with age or starved of supporting evidence. Within the next 5 to ten years the evidence will be in demonstrating that billions of scarce research dollars and several decades—a generation—of researcher’s efforts have been mostly wasted due to a misinterpretation based on an incorrect assumption—that the universe at large scales is the same in all directions at large scales. The assumption had been already called into question by the early 1990s because of indications of directional movement with respect to the cosmic microwave background.
Explanations based on a great attractor called out for extensive investigation and at least a common recognition that this is a hypothesis and that simplifying assumptions were clearly in error, at least in the then observable universe. It turns out to be in continuing challenge as observation ranges increase. Come on folks. It now appears that dark energy is about to be tossed into the dustbin of science along with epicycles.
Get on with it and stop wasting everyone’s time. It is increasingly clear what the last batch of data will indicate along with the 4.9 sigma evidence demonstrated to date. Already a pretty slender thread to justify your continuing professional careers upon without now being open to a myriad of other possibilities.

[aretwodeetoo]

So, we're replacing a particle we never saw by another particle we never saw and that was designed specifically to be compatible with lack of observation, which is required to hold on to the absurd idea that the observed gravitational anomalies are explained by matter. Check. Makes perfect sense...

[mikotagayuna]

We have not achieved anything in detecting these particles but we have made GREAT strides in creating backcronyms.

[paulatk]

A very fascinating video, this brings back painful memories which i have been enduring. My relationship of 6 years ended 3 months ago. The love of my life decided to leave me, I really love her so much I can’t stop thinking about her, I’ve tried my very best to get her back in my life, but to no avail, I’m frustrated, I don’t see my life with anyone else. I’ve done my best to get rid of the thoughts of her, but I can’t, I don’t know why I’m saying this here, I really miss her and just can’t stop thinking about her .

[kadeharward]

A Sabine Video a day, keeps the melancholy away 😄

[johnselle]

If 'Hannes Alfven' were still alive, it would be fun to get his interpretation of 'modern astrophysics'. And for those unaware, he managed a Nobel prize. Back when they were give out for experimental evidence to theory.