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Dark Matter could be Detected in GPS Time Glitches

posted by LaminatorX on Tuesday November 18 2014, @03:56AM   Printer-friendly
from the bent-space dept.

AnonTechie writes:

GPS has a new job. It does a great job of telling us our location, but the network of hyper-accurate clocks in space could get a fix on something far more elusive: dark matter.

Dark matter makes up 80 per cent of the universe's matter but scarcely interacts with ordinary matter. A novel particle is the most popular candidate, but Andrei Derevianko ( http://www.dereviankogroup.com/dark-matter-atomic-clocks-idea-call-experimental-efforts/ ) at the University of Nevada, Reno, and Maxim Pospelov ( http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/people/maxim-pospelov ) at the Perimeter Institute in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada propose that kinks or cracks in the quantum fields that permeate the universe could be the culprit.

If they are right, fundamental properties such as the mass of an electron or the strength of electromagnetic fields would change at the kinks. "The effect is essentially locally modifying fundamental constants," Derevianko says. Clocks would be affected too, measuring time slightly differently as a result.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn26575-dark-matter-could-be-seen-in-gps-time-glitches.html

[Abstract/Paper]:
http://arxiv.org/abs/1311.1244
http://www.nature.com/nphys/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nphys3137.html

 
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  • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Wednesday November 19 2014, @01:15AM

    by FatPhil (863) <reversethis-{if.fdsa} {ta} {tnelyos-cp}> on Wednesday November 19 2014, @01:15AM (#117471) Homepage
    > Historical note: "special invisible juju matter" was discovered by Pauli in 1930. He made a quote like "I have done a terrible thing, I have postulated a particle that cannot be detected". The neutrino was observed 26 years later.

    Dark matter was postulated in 1932, and we've got way better observation equipment available to us, and understanding of everything that we can observe, than we did in the 50s. Your quoted argument does not achieve what you intended it to.
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  • (Score: 1) by In hydraulis on Wednesday November 19 2014, @03:20AM

    by In hydraulis (386) on Wednesday November 19 2014, @03:20AM (#117499)

    So your issue is simply a matter of how long it takes to verify or alternatively disprove a hypothesis?

    If so, what timeline would you find acceptable? Clearly 26 years is fine, as per the above example of the neutrino. How about 126?

    Also, whatever number you set as the threshold, be sure to explain how your choice is not an arbitrary one.

    • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Wednesday November 19 2014, @09:02AM

      by FatPhil (863) <reversethis-{if.fdsa} {ta} {tnelyos-cp}> on Wednesday November 19 2014, @09:02AM (#117569) Homepage
      I'm just pointing out that the prior post's historical note does not actually help his argument. It was an anecdote for which there is an equal and opposite anti-anecdote.
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