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Professor Elisabetta Barberio at Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory . Picture : Jason Edwards
Going underground
Australian unis collaborate to uncover secrets of dark matter .
By Emilie Lauer
A new underground physics lab in regional Victoria is setting Australian universities up in the race to unveil the secrets of dark matter , and potentially make the ‘ discovery of the century ’.
Located in an active gold mine , the Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory ( SUPL ) is the only underground lab in the southern hemisphere , and will help researchers determine whether dark matter exists .
Currently , the existence of dark matter has only been theoretical , and lead researcher and professor at the school of physics and faculty of science from the University of Melbourne , Elisabetta Barberio , said the truth has eluded scientists for decades .
“ With the Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory , we have the tools and location to detect this dark matter .”
Believed to be one of the biggest research challenges of the century , discovering dark matter could unlock the secrets of the cosmos and our origins .
“ We know there is much more matter than we can see ,” Barberio said .
“ Proving the existence of dark matter will help us understand its nature and forever change how we see the universe .”
According to the researchers , dark matter is a substance that composes about 85 per cent of the mass around us , yet as it doesn ’ t absorb or emit light , it is impossible to see .
The Stawell team , composed of researchers from the University of Melbourne , ANU , Adelaide University , Swinburne , USyd , and the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation ( ANSTO ), will try to find particles of dark matter by replicating an Italian experiment , which has shown positive results .
Detecting dark matter has always been a complicated task as the experiment needs to take place in an environment without noise , light or radioactivity .
To ensure optimum results the new lab , located one kilometre underground and measuring 33 metres by 10 metres , has been sprayed with Tekflex , a product which reduces potential interference from gas present in the rock mass .
Additionally , ANU researcher Zuzana Slavkovska has been working with her team on developing methods to identify radioimpurities in the materials used to build the detector known as SABRE South .
“ Even the smallest radioactivity has to be thoroughly assessed , because particles from radioactive decays might mimic dark matter particles ,” Slavkovska said .
Over the coming months , the components of the SABRE South detector which have been designed and constructed at Swinburne University of Technology will be tested in multiple facilities around Australia before being installed at the Stawell lab .
“ One of the critical elements developed at Swinburne has been the ‘ slow control system ’,” Swinburne Professor Geoffrey Brooks said .
“ It is designed to ensure that all the conditions in the SABRE detector are accurately recorded , given the detector is sensitive to small changes in temperature , humidity and movement .”
The detector will give researchers the opportunity to see dark matter for the first time , as visible light will be emitted when the particles collide with the crystals in the detector .
The theory around dark matter originated in 1933 when Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky studied the Coma cluster and observed that the stars in that galaxy were traveling so fast that they should have escaped their gravitational pull .
He believed a massive and invisible gravitational force kept the galaxies in place by filling up the cluster and named it “ dark matter ”.
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