November 18, 2014

Dark conversation: Webcast to explore the hunt for dark matter

As you might guess from the name, dark matter is quite elusive. Its particles make up about one-quarter of the mass of the universe and as much as 85 percent of all matter. But it apparently does not interact with light or other matter and so it’s never been directly observed.

In a webcast Thursday, Nov. 20, three scientists including University of Washington physicist Gray Rybka will discuss how close we are to actually identifying dark matter. They will talk about the status of their experiments and answer questions, which can be submitted ahead of and during the webcast by emailing info@kavlifoundation.org or by using the hashtag #KavliLive on Twitter or Google+.

Rbyka and fellow UW physicist Leslie Rosenberg are leading the Axion Dark Matter Experiment (called ADMX for short) that is being conducted on the UW campus. Two other projects, the LUX-ZEPLIN experiment in South Dakota Super Cryogenic Dark Matter Search in Ontario, Canada, are searching for a different dark matter candidate, called weakly interacting massive particles, or WIMPs.

The webcast is sponsored by the California-based Kavli Foundation, which aims to promote increased public understanding and support for science.

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