Physicists have used a supercomputer to calculate the cosmological structure of Dark Matter throughout the universe. In order to do so, they used calculations from the standard model of particle physics, and other models as well, to calculate the general mass of a class of particles called axions, which are a strong candidate for dark-matter.
Their work was published in Nature under the title ''Calculation of the axion mass based on high-temperature lattice quantum chromodynamics.''
Darker matter
Dark-matter is an invisible force that is spread throughout the universe.
Scientists have not ''yet'' observed d-matter in the lab or in particle accelerators, but there are strong theoretical reasons for its existence.
A team of researchers led by Professor Zoltán Fodor of the University of Wuppertal, Eötvös University in Budapest and Forschungszentrum Jülich have been chasing d-matter from a different position. Using calculations from the standard model, they used computer programs to calculate the masses of the particles that are considered to be ''dark'' particles called ''axions''
"Dark-matter is an invisible form of matter which until now has only revealed itself through its gravitational effects. What it consists of remains a complete mystery," said Dr Andreas Ringw.
Axions
Axions are an extension that occurs with the calculation of quantum-electro-dynamics, the theory that governs the strong-force which hold the nucleus inside the atom. Axions are inevitable fluctuations in quantum-electro-dynamics, although they haven't been directly observed (so far). The standard model is very successful in describing many of the physical phenomena that we observe, but it does not predict many other phenomena in the universe like dark energy and dark matter, which actually represents ''most'' of the stuff that exists in the universe.
Axions are hard to predict by handwritten mathematics, so scientists used a supercomputer to study their cosmological behavior. According to the simulation, axions should have a mass of 50-1500 micro electronvolts, which is much lighter than the mass of electrons.