calcium tungstate (CaWO4) crystal tagged posts

Bright Sparks shed new light on the Dark Matter riddle

A CRESST Detector Module

One of the CRESST detector modules. When illuminated with ultraviolet light, the scintillating inner shield glows brightly.

Highest sensitivity detector ever for very light dark matter elementary particles. The origin of matter in the universe has puzzled physicists for generations. Today, we know that matter only accounts for 5% of our universe; another 25% is constituted of dark matter. And the remaining 70% is made up of dark energy. Dark matter itself represents an unsolved riddle.

Physicists believe that such dark matter is composed of (as yet undefined) elementary particles that stick together thanks to gravitational force. In a study recently published in EPJ C, scientists from the CRESST-II research project use the phonon-light technique to detect dark matter...

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