In the 1930s, Fritz Zwicky, observing the Coma cluster, noticed anomalously high galaxy velocities: their motion pointed to a huge hidden mass gravitationally binding the system. Later, in the 1970s, Vera Rubin and her colleagues, studying spiral galaxy rotation curves, showed that stars at the periphery orbit at nearly the same speed as those near the center — contradicting Newtonian dynamics if only visible matter is considered. This strengthened the hypothesis of dark matter — an invisible substance that manifests itself only through gravity. However, direct detection of its particles remains a challenge: they, like neutrinos, ghostly particles that barely interact with matter, pass through ordinary material without leaving a trace.

Now physicists have proposed an original trap based on porous crystals, whose structure resembles a sponge. The idea is that when a dark matter particle collides with such a crystal, it can generate a twisted sound wave — a phonon with orbital angular momentum, which is essentially a microscopic magnetic vortex. This 'whisper'—the faintest disturbance — can be registered by an ultrasensitive sensor integrated right onto the crystal.

A notable feature of the method: calculations show that the 'sponge's' sensitivity is almost independent of its chemical composition. Experimenters can vary the base components, introduce rare-earth additives — the detector's response remains stable. This offers engineering flexibility in creating devices tailored to specific conditions. Moreover, the vortex phonons excited in the crystal resemble processes thought to have occurred right after the big bang and led to symmetry breaking in the early universe. Since the Standard Model of particle physics offers no candidates for dark matter, successfully registering a signal in such a detector would be a direct indication of new physics beyond current theories.