Dark matter detector based on GPS satellites

Published on November 17, Russian physicists Derevianko (works in the USA, specializes in atomic clocks) and Pospelov (works in Canada) propose to build a dark matter detector based on the existing network of GPS satellites.

The details of the proposal helps to understand the article on the resource ExtremeTech . One of the features of these satellites is a very accurate time measurement with corrections for relativistic effects arising from the speed of their movements. However, such effects can also occur under the influence of gravitational fields. The mass of dark matter in the Universe, as is believed in modern astrophysics, is about five times the mass of ordinary matter. Since dark matter is massive, the mass influences the passage of time, and GPS satellites can measure time very accurately - they can make this detector.


Andrei Derevyanko.
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If with the help of these clocks it is possible to measure the disturbances created by the moving dark matter, it will be possible to calculate what kind of object caused these disturbances. The peculiarity of measurements related to dark matter is the fact that, unlike the ordinary one, it does not form large clusters and does not create “dark stars” or “dark galaxies”. It moves through the Universe at high speeds and creates spatial structures resembling a web. These structures are so large that they are almost impossible to measure using such small objects as the orbit of the movement of satellites. Measurements will be successful only if one of the dark matter theories is correct: a model of topological defects.



According to this model, when the Universe cooled down after the Big Bang, dark matter made a phase transition and "froze" in a matrix structure that has some defects - magnetic monopoles, two-dimensional membranes, etc. One of the most famous such possible defects is the cosmic string: an object is not thicker than an atom, but a length of several light years, as a result of which its mass is enormous. If such a cosmic string or other similar object passes near the dark matter detector, it will be quite possible to detect it. Of course, no one guarantees such events, and even if the detector detects nothing, it will not mean that the theory is incorrect and these defects do not exist. But from the point of view of science, it’s worth a try.

Dark matter is a hypothetical matter that does not interact with EM radiation, and its influence can only be detected through gravity. She was brought into use after discovering the fact that galaxies rotate in such a way as if they weigh an order of magnitude more than all visible matter in their composition weighs. Then it was suggested that the existence of some kind of matter undetectable by conventional means, exerting only a gravitational influence.