Dark Matter Crossing, 2023

David Cerdeño with Rebecca Collins
Dark Matter Crossing, 2023
Digital display controlled by Arduino board

Dark matter particles are crossing the gallery, right now, in large numbers, however, we cannot feel them. The total amount of dark matter in our galaxy exceeds that of ordinary matter, but it is much more thinly distributed. Studying the motion of stars in the Milky Way and performing numerical simulations of the dark halo, its density at the position of the Earth (and therefore this exhibition space) can be inferred. Using this information and the expected average velocity of dark matter particles, we can determine how much of this elusive substance is crossing us. The numerical display shows, in picograms (one picogram is one trillionth of a gram), the total mass of dark matter particles that have traversed the gallery since the opening of the exhibition.

David Cerdeño is a theoretical physicist working at the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM) and at the Institute of Theoretical Physics (IFT-UAM/CSIC). His research is focused on Astroparticle Physics, particularly the Dark Matter problem, its relationship with new physics beyond the Standard Model, and the possibility of detecting it.

Assembled in the Astroparticle Laboratory for Elusive Searches (ASTROLABES), and the technical department of the high energy laboratory at UAM, in collaboration with Francisco Gallardo and Pablo Collado Soto.