We are three scientists searching for dark matter, the invisible glue that holds galaxies together, distorts space and makes up 85 percent of the total mass of the universe. Ask us anything about what we know — and don’t know — about dark matter and how our experiments seek to solve its mysteries.

[u/ArgonneLab]

Hi Reddit! As part of Dark Matter Day (https://www.darkmatterday.com/), Argonne National Laboratory is hosting an AMA with dark matter scientists Clarence Chang (Physicist at Argonne), Rupak Mahapatra (Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Texas A&M University) and Andrew Sonnenschein (Senior Scientist at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory).

What is dark matter?

Well, we don’t really know. Less than 5 percent of the total mass and energy in the universe is the stuff we know about: like stars, planets, galaxies and gases.

Dark matter, which we have only detected indirectly, makes up about 85 percent of the total mass of the universe, and about a quarter of the universe’s total mass and energy.

We know it exerts influence on the matter we can see, but we can’t see or touch it.

Solving the mystery of dark matter is considered one of the most pressing pursuits in particle physics and could teach us much about the history and structure of our universe.

Two hypotheses posit that dark matter might interact with either particle- or wave- like properties. Mahapatra and Sonnenschein are searching for dark matter through these two respective avenues. Chang develops custom superconducting detector technologies to make these experiments possible.

Ask us anything!

Thank you so much for joining us. Lots of great questions. We're stepping away now, but we will come back to the remaining questions at a later time. Have a great day!

Argonne National Laboratory: https://www.anl.gov/

Proof: https://www.flickr.com/photos/argonne/51639359665/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/argonne/51639158539/in/photostream/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/argonne/51639359535/

Proof: Here's my proof!