Revolutionizing the Search for Dark Matter: Pioneering New Methods

Researchers at the ATLAS experiment at CERN have pioneered a new way of searching for dark matter by exploring a new detector signature known as semi-visible jets. These jets arise when hypothetical dark quarks partially decay into standard-model quarks and partially into stable dark hadrons. The imbalance of energy or missing energy in the detector, often aligned with one of the semi-visible jets, makes the search challenging. This new approach opens up new directions in the search for the existence of dark matter.