News Physics

A new dark matter experiment quashed earlier hints of new particles

The XENONnT detector spotted no extra recoiling electrons

dark matter detector in construction

Unlike its earlier incarnation, the XENONnT detector (shown under construction) found no evidence of extra recoiling electrons. Scientists had hoped the previous result indicated new physics.

Luigi Di Carlo for the XENON collaboration

By Emily Conover

Potential hints of weird new particles in a dark matter detector have evaporated with new data.

Following up on a beguiling result from its predecessor experiment, the XENONnT experiment found no sign of extra blips that could point to new particles or another phenomenon, scientists report July 22 in Vienna at the International Conference on Identification of Dark Matter.