Jing Shu

Dark matter makes up 85% of the matter in the Universe, yet remains invisible. It only reveals itself through gravity. We can catch it by its cosmic 'hum' — a faint vibration that permeates space. A single detector is powerless here: the signal is too quiet. Physicists turn many sensors into a quantum ensemble.

Dark matter is an invisible mass holding galaxies together. Its nature remains unknown, but one likely candidate is the axion — an ultra-light particle that barely interacts with matter. To catch it, physicists built a hybrid trap.

In the depths of a neutron star, the remnant of an exploded star, matter is compressed so tightly that a teaspoon would weigh billions of tons. Within this superdense material, a special kind of force might be at work, one that affects only muon and tau neutrinos.

In the pitch darkness of a vacuum chamber, a tiny magnet floats. It touches no walls and loses almost no energy — an ideal sentinel, ready to catch the faintest nudge. Such a sentinel is exactly what you need for axion hunting. These particles are prime suspects in the case of the Universe's hidden mass, which we call dark matter.