Xenon100 Rejects Dama/Libra Nighttime Affair Modulation At 5.7 Sigma

DAMA/LIBRA is an Italian night affair experiment that most colleagues champaign don't accept also seriously. In recent years, it has claimed to regain approximately clear signatures of night matter, especially through the night affair seasonal modulation. Some effects are unlike inwards the summertime as well as inwards the winter, as well as and therefore on. This is what y'all would hold off from a night affair counterpart of the "aether wind", if I dare to borrow to a debunked concept. ;-)



DAMA/LIBRA is approximately microwave oven amongst approximately sensitive pieces inside 1 meter of concrete inwards all directions. H5N1 theorist must remove hold a similar thought nearly it as I remove hold nearly a Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation printer, Canon LBP7018C, whose 3-of-4 cartridges I attempted to supersede yesterday but the non-original compatible ones got stuck inwards it as well as the printer seems broken now. Probably non my error but I can't survive sure. ;-) The Rutgers+Harvard sense taught me that a dedicated professional person is needed to hold a Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation printer.

The most recent DAMA/LIBRA newspaper is this 2013 update which says that the statistical significance of their observed – nominally discovered – night affair modulation signal is 9.3 sigma. If true, it's a uncovering on steroids.

When the pro-dark affair side seemed to survive winning inwards the night affair wars, at that spot were other reasons to recall that this modulation exists. CoGeNT has confirmed approximately modulation inwards 2011, too.

The atmosphere is unlike similar a shot as well as the anti-dark affair side seems to survive on an offensive. It's specially clear from the today's novel preprint past times the XENON collaboration:

Search for Electronic Recoil Event Rate Modulation amongst four Years of XENON100 Data

XENON, ane of the most formidable night affair detectors inwards the basis (I recall that LUX as well as XENON are upgrading as well as fighting for the leadership), investigated the annual modulation as well. Using the 2010-2014 data, they remove hold evaluated the theory amongst night affair modulation as well as parameters suggested past times the claimed DAMA/LIBRA signal. And they remove hold excluded this theory. Experimenters ordinarily tend to disprove theories amongst newly proposed effects at ii sigma or 95% confidence marker – because the "null hypothesis" to which they provide to isn't extraordinary as well as doesn't necessitate extraordinary evidence.

But inwards this case, they could accept the DAMA/LIBRA claim to survive a "natural hypothesis" as well as XENON excluded it at 5.7 sigma – because it's to a greater extent than than five, y'all may order that XENON has made a discovery that DAMA/LIBRA is wrong.




Now, an option explanation is, of course, that XENON is incorrect as well as DAMA/LIBRA (and mayhap CoGeNT) are even as well as therefore correct as well as the night modulation exists. If y'all desire to defend this viewpoint, y'all may indicate out that the release 9.3 (the significance marker of DAMA/LIBRA) is greater than the release 5.7 (XENON's negative significance level). Not also many people inwards the patch volition accept this mental attitude – but needless to say, they may survive incorrect as well as their mental attitude may mainly reverberate the grouping think.




At whatever rate, if there's approximately grouping recall inwards the discipline, it's complex as well as softly self-contradictory. The researchers inwards that patch significantly favor night matter. But they also favor the thought that the Italians are also messy to regain it. ;-) (Just to survive sure, I know that XENON is Italian, too.)

I don't know who is right. At to the lowest degree amongst approximately meaning certainty. It would survive painful if XENON missed this uncovering despite their vastly to a greater extent than expensive experiment. But it may happen. For example, I even as well as therefore produce tend to recall that the positive claim nearly the discoversable primordial gravitational waves past times BICEP* has a reasonable remove chances (20%?) to survive right, despite the mission of their competitors Planck to kill anything of the sort.

The province of affairs of XENON as well as DAMA/LIBRA has ane to a greater extent than subtlety. In the novel paper, XENON does encounter some modulation but it is weak – 1.9 sigma – as well as its menstruum is 431 summation minus fifteen days, rather safely away from the expected 365 days. So everyone is gonna assume that this weak "signal" is simply noise.

Yesterday inwards The New York Times, Lisa Randall argued that Why Vera Rubin Deserved a Nobel. (Vera Rubin died on Christmas Day.) Well, maybe, yes, no. I recall that Lisa's article is highly incomplete as well as tendentious.

You would recall that an article titled "Why Vera Rubin Deserved a Nobel" (because of her contributions to the enquiry of night matter) would comprise at to the lowest degree most of the basic information nearly the discoverers of night matter. I don't recall it does. Lisa writes that Rubin is "most oftentimes attributed" amongst establishing night matter's existence. The NYT article doesn't fifty-fifty mention Fritz Zwicky who deduced night affair (dunkle Materie) inwards 1933, using the virial theorem. I recall that Zwicky is genuinely the scientist most oftentimes attributed amongst the uncovering of night matter, as well as rightfully so, as well as Randall's claim to the reverse is a business office of the feminist propaganda.



XENON100 seems larger than DAMA/LIBRA.

Well, people may as order that my perspective is biased because Zwicky was also a male, similar me, who was also surrounded past times many spherical bastards (they are as bastards from whatever direction) as well as whose woman nurture was Františka Vrček, an ethnic Czech – as well as therefore Zwicky was Czech to the same extent as Ivanka Trump. But I recall that it's ludicrously obvious that the priority would remove hold to belong to Zwicky.

Another ground is that if night affair were genuinely proven, Zwicky was to a greater extent than for sure of its beingness piece Rubin was hesitating, encounter this comment of mine nearly the (somewhat overstated) article "Vera Rubin Didn't Discover Dark Matter" past times Richard Panek, a large Zwicky fan.

But these Zwicky-vs-Rubin disputes aren't also relevant for ane reason: We are non terribly for sure that night affair is the correct explanation of the anomalies. Given the non quite negligible "risk" that the correct explanation is completely different, something similar MOND, it could survive really foreign to ambit the Nobel prize for "it". What "it" fifty-fifty means? Look at the listing of the Nobel prize winners. No ane has e'er received the Nobel prize for the uncovering of "something" that no ane knew what it genuinely was – a novel particle? Black holes everywhere? H5N1 novel term inwards Newton's gravitational law? The normal contribution rewarded past times Nobel prizes is a clearcut theory that was experimentally proven, or the experimental proof of a clear theory. Even though most cosmologists as well as particle physicists etc. tend to assume night matter, night matter-suggesting observations aren't genuinely belonging to this class yet.

And I recall that this is the actual primary ground why Vera Rubin hasn't gotten the prize for night affair – as well as no ane else has received it, either.