IIT Guwahati finds similarities between dark matter, neutrinos

Researchers found that the origin and production of dark matter can actually be connected to the origin of neutrino mass. 

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati have found distinctive similarities between the nature of dark matter and neutrinos. To unfold the nature of dark matter, a trio of theoretical physicists, Prof Arunansu Sil and two of his PhD students Arghyajit Datta and Rishav Roshan, found that the origin and production of dark matter can actually be connected to the origin of neutrino mass. The work was published in the journal, ‘Physical Review Letters’. 

What are neutrinos? 

A neutrino is a subatomic particle that is very similar to an electron, but has no electrical charge and a very small mass, which might even be zero. Neutrinos are one of the most abundant particles in the Universe. 

Prof Sil said, “Though hinted by several astrophysical observations, the lack of any direct evidence of dark matter particles suggests that it has a very feeble interaction with ordinary matter. Our proposal provides a clue to such a miniature interaction by showing that its smallness is connected to the lightness of the neutrino mass (smallest one) which is uniquely predicted to be in the pico electron-volt range.” 

Arghyajit Datta said, “Apart from explaining the dark matter and tiny neutrino mass, the same construction also addresses the third mystery: why there is more matter than anti-matter in the Universe? The two remaining sterile neutrinos, other than the dark matter one, in the model are responsible for such an asymmetry.”  

Elaborating on this, Rishav Roshan said, “We take an interesting step ahead by showing for the first time that in fact the entire dark matter content of the Universe can be produced from the decay of the mediators of the weak force in nature and the Higgs boson in the early Universe and can easily obey cosmological bounds.” 

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