A French-German laboratory for identifying the nature of dark matter

The MadMax experiment proposes a new approach hoping to detect axions, hypothetical particles that could constitute dark matter. MadMax Collaboration   Dark matter remains a scientific mystery: it makes up 26% of our Universe's total energy density, but has never been observed. The CNRS and German research centres from the Helmholtz Association have joined forces to create the Dark Matter Lab (DMLab), an International Research Laboratory (IRL) focusing on the mysterious substance that is dark matter. It was created in late May 2023, and will be based at the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron in Hamburg. It is one of the great mysteries of astrophysics: in galaxies and galactic clusters, visible matter alone does not account for the total mass needed to explain astronomical observations. An invisible "dark" matter-interacting very little with ordinary matter-must be added. While it represents an estimated 26% of the Universe's total energy density, dark matter remains hypothetical today, and its nature still unknown.