LSU plays key role in cosmic research

• By JORDAN BLUM
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Nov 20, 2008 - Page: 1B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Theories of extra dimensions and the makeup of the universe could be affected by findings first discovered by accident in an LSU-led study.

The international research team has detected and confirmed the existence of high-energy cosmic rays coming from a nearby pulsar, black hole or mysterious “dark matter” that has never been seen before.

The results of the Antarctica-based balloon study, called the Advanced Thin Ionization Calorimeter or ATIC project, are published in today’s issue of the respected Nature journal.

The scientists unexpectedly found what is being called an “electron bump” of more electrons than expected that were moving very rapidly, which indicated a nearby source within 3,000 light years of Earth, LSU physicist Greg Guzik said. There are no known energy sources within those parameters that match, which indicated a new discovery.

“Many times what you aren’t looking for becomes the most important result,” Guzik said. “That’s what sort of happened here.”

John Wefel, LSU physicist and project leader, said team members thought the data was false when they first began collecting information a few years ago.

“We spent the next two years trying to make it go away, and we couldn’t,” Wefel said. “Now we’re very convinced.

“Now we’re asking, what does it mean?” Wefel said.

The most interesting possibility is that the source is the theorized “dark matter” that could make up much of the universe but does not interact with matter as we know it, Guzik said.

Dark matter fits in with “string theories of gravity” that propose there could be as many as 12 dimensions folded upon each other, instead of the known four time and space dimensions, he said.

“The universe gets stranger and stranger,” Guzik said.

“This all goes to explaining what our place in the universe is,” Guzik said. “If it weren’t for stars and star explosions, we wouldn’t exist. So we are intimately connected to the universe, very literally.”

If this is actually spotting a dark matter clump, Wefel said it could make for a “revolutionary” discovery.