Science a GoGo's Home Page Forums General Discussion Physics Forum Is there an existing Dark Matter detector?

Phys.Org has a report on an experiment to possibly detect dark matter using the GPS satellite system. The report is http://phys.org/news/2014-11-elusive-dark-gps-satellites.html

The experiment depends on a particular theory of what dark matter consists of. The authors are studying a form of dark matter that consists of topological defects, that is macroscopic defects in spacetime. If this is the form that dark matter takes the Earth is sweeping through a cloud of these defects. When one passes it could cause a loss of synchronization of the atomic clocks in the GPS satellites. They plan to analyze data from the cloud of satellites and look for these events. They expect that the loss of sync would cause a particular pattern over about a 3 minute period. They say they can detect a loss of sync of 1 part in a billion.

I say good luck. Any finding that would help determine what dark matter is would be highly welcome.

Bill Gill

Tahnks for the information about the link, i will come back after collecting information about it.

Another suggestion. This one again from Phys.Org.

In this story they report on a scientist that suggests we may be wrong about where we have been putting our dark matter detectors. He suggests that dark matter may interact with regular matter. If that is the case then placing the detectors deep under ground may cause the dark matter particles to lose energy so that the detectors won't see them. He suggests placing the detectors on or near the surface at around 40 degrees S. latitude. There will be a lot of interference, but if the dark matter particles lose energy during their passage through the Earth we can detect a modulation in the noise level from the interference and that will indicate the presence of dark matter particles.

Note that this is a completely different thing than was talked about in my first post.

Bill Gill