Turning a telescope into a dark matter trap
In short: Dark matter is invisible, reflecting no light and leaving no trace. We usually only know it exists by its gravitational pull on galaxies. But what if we could stop looking at the stars and start using the telescope's own hardware to catch the particles themselves?
Because dark matter doesn't interact with light, traditional detectors often miss it. However, researchers are proposing a shift from indirect observation to direct detection using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Researchers aim to identify dark matter of the 'dark photon' variety (DPDM) inside the infrared frequency range. This approach leverages the JWST's highly sensitive infrared light detectors, which are typically used to observe distant galaxies, to instead act as sensors for dark matter interactions.
The proposed mechanism involves DPDM inducing electron oscillations in both the telescope's reflectors and the interior of its detectors. These oscillating electrons can emit monochromatic electromagnetic waves. The frequency of these waves is almost equivalent to the mass of the dark photon dark matter. Because the telescope's reflectors are significantly larger than these wavelengths, the physics can be simplified to ray optics, allowing researchers to analyze the electromagnetic wave field at specific positions.
Another method involves using the HgCdTe detectors in the JWST's Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec). Researchers can use 'dark' calibration images to search for sub-GeV dark matter candidates that scatter off electrons. This method is particularly useful because terrestrial detectors are often shielded by the Earth's crust or atmosphere, which stops dark matter with large interactions. By using the JWST, scientists can disfavor previously allowed parameter spaces for dark matter interacting with ultralight dark photons, even for subcomponent fractions as low as ~0.01%.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: How to use JWST as a direct detector of DARK MATTER
- Also: Direct detection of dark photon dark matter with the James Webb Space Telescope
- Also: Constraints on Strongly-Interacting Dark Matter from the James Webb Space Telescope - NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)
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