Scientists hunting unseen dark matter are looking deeper into the shadows. With searches for a favored dark matter candidate—weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs)—coming up empty, physicists are now turning to the hypothetical "dark sector": an entire shadow realm of hidden particles. This week, physicists will meet at the University of Maryland in College Park for a workshop, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), to mull ideas for a possible $10 million short-term experiment that would complement the agency9s current WIMP search and other dark-matter efforts. And many researchers believe DOE should focus on the dark sector. Whereas WIMPs would be a single massive particle tacked onto the standard model of known particles, the dark sector would consist of a slew of lighter particles and forces—such as a dark version of electromagnetism—with tenuous connections to known particles. To spot dark-sector particles, physicists will have to rethink their detection techniques, but the new experiment could be small and cheap, physicists say. Still, DOE officials warn that the $10 million isn9t a sure thing.

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为了寻找看不见的物质，物理学家转向暗区

寻找看不见的暗物质的科学家正在深入研究阴影。随着寻找一个受欢迎的暗物质候选者——弱相互作用大质量粒子 (WIMPs)——的空缺，物理学家现在转向假设的“暗区”：隐藏粒子的整个阴影领域。本周，物理学家们将在美国能源部 (DOE) 赞助的马里兰大学帕克分校开会，讨论可能的 1000 万美元短期实验的想法，以补充该机构目前的 WIMP 搜索和其他暗物质研究。许多研究人员认为 DOE 应该关注黑暗领域。而 WIMP 将是一个单一的大质量粒子，附加到已知粒子的标准模型上，暗区将由一系列较轻的粒子和力组成——例如暗版的电磁力——与已知粒子的联系很弱。物理学家说，为了发现暗区粒子，物理学家将不得不重新考虑他们的检测技术，但新的实验可能规模小且成本低。尽管如此，美国能源部官员警告说，1000 万美元并不是确定的事情。