Most of the stuff in our universe is invisible. According to modern cosmology, our universe contains 4.9 percent ordinary matter (the stuff that shines like stars), 26.8 percent dark matter, and 68.3 percent dark energy. Dark matter is a hypothetical substance that has mass but does not radiate light. Its gravitational pull on visible matter has been the only indication of its existence.
Michael Wood, PhD, associate professor and chair of Physics at Canisius, and his collaborators are planning an experiment to create dark matter in the laboratory. The idea is to turn a beam of high-energy electrons into dark matter particles at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (JLab). This is only possible if another force, besides gravity, exists that allows ordinary matter to interact with dark matter. As of now, this unknown force is purely theoretical. This project is spearheaded by Dr. Wood’s JLab collaborators in Genova, Italy. Three Canisius students, under Dr. Wood’s supervision, worked in Genova as part of the exchange program between the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the INFN, the Italian counterpart to the DOE. These students have written custom software to monitor the particle detectors in the future experiment.
Submitted by: Sara Morris, associate vice president, academic affairs
