Published in Physics World, 1 Jun 2010
For over 70 years astrophysicists have speculated what might compose the missing dark matter that seems to make up over 80% of all mass in the universe. The typical candidates are fundamental entities known as weakly interacting massive particles, or WIMPs, but new research suggests something more peculiar would better fit the bill.
According to Kathryn Zurek of the University of Michigan and colleagues, “quirky composite dark matter” could explain the universe’s missing mass, but would be free of some of the usual problems associated with conventional WIMP dark matter. “People are becoming more and more open to more complex theories of dark matter,” says Zurek. […]
The rest of this article is available here.