You have heard of the “axion”, that theoretical particle that is one of the main candidates to explain dark matter, the one that represents about 85% of the mass of the universe, but that has never been directly detected and now scientists have managed to recreate something very similar to it in the laboratory, it is not the original particle, but it is almost like having a clone of the invisible in your hands.
Researchers at Harvard and Kings College London created an “axion”-like quasi-particle inside an ultra-thin material made of bismuth and manganese tellurium. This material has a rare property: it automatically connects electricity and magnetism when a field is applied.
electrically the material becomes magnetized, it is interaction when it oscillates in a specific way it emits exactly the behavior of a real axion, even generating something that can be transformed into light, a power.
The creation of the quasi-particle occurs in two steps, one laser creates a magnon, a magnetic wave that passes through the material, a second laser examines the response of the material, revealing oscillations between electric and magnetic fields exactly what is expected from an axion and unlike previous observations that only suggested this phenomenon this time the scientists captured a clear and unmistakable signature.
Although this experiment does not directly involve precise analysis of the oscillations and modeling of quasi-particle behavior benefiting from complex simulations and advanced processing algorithms, this combination of quantum physics with smart materials opens a new path for what could become a revolutionary dark matter detection technology.
If these axion quasi-particles can be used in detectors, we could be close to discovering real axion particles in the universe. Upon entering a magnetic field, an axion could generate a photon that would interact with the quasi-particle, amplifying the signal and making it visible to scientific instruments, that is, this material could become the lens that reveals the hidden side of the cosmos.
If this advance really leads to the detection of axions, we would be facing one of the greatest discoveries in modern physics, perhaps even revealing what the dark matter that fills the universe is made of.
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