The lack of electrons and anti-electrons of certain energies in cosmic rays means that some unknown physical process "devours" them.
An international team of scientists, led by Chinese researchers, found a noticeable dip in the energies of electrons and anti-electrons emanating from space in the region of about 0.9 teraelectronvolts on the dark matter particle detector. This could indicate either annihilation or decay of dark matter particles. The corresponding article was published in Nature.
The authors used in their work data from the Dark Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE), a Chinese space telescope that records, among other things, cosmic rays, and among them - high-energy electrons and anti-electrons coming into the solar system from outside of it. For the first time, they succeeded in analyzing the energy distribution of these particles with high accuracy in the range from 25 gigaelectronvolts to 4.6 teraelectronvolts. It turned out that there are fewer particles with an energy of 0.9 teraelectronvolts than it should be, based on the normal distribution.
It should be understood that such a failure cannot be an accident. For it to happen, it is necessary that dark matter particles decay during their life cycle and affect the distribution of energies, "turning off" some of the particles. Thus, although the probe does not confirm the existence of dark matter, it points to the processes that may be a consequence of the decay of its particles.
At the same time, it should be noted that so far, almost all attempts to detect dark matter particles have yielded nothing. There are hypotheses that offer an alternative to dark matter, attributing the observed facts explained with its help to the fraction of relic gravitational waves or other processes. The question is key for all modern physics: in the current interpretation, dark matter is many times greater than ordinary matter in mass, so it is extremely important for scientists to understand what it consists of and exactly how it affects ordinary matter, of which all planets, stars and living things are composed. Earlier, a group of Russian scientists put forward the assumption that dark matter particles, in theory, can be responsible for a noticeable part of cancers that affect the inhabitants of the Earth.
IVAN ORTEGA