Physicists have clarified the temperature of dark matter

Back in the 1930s, astronomers noticed that galaxies were moving much faster than they should, based on

observed mass.Calculations have shown that they actually contain much more mass than can be seen with telescopes - this hypothetical invisible material is called "dark matter".

Since then, astronomers have been trying to determine from whichparticles it consists. It was believed that matter can consist of dark photons, axions, weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), macroparticles with masses on the scale of a dwarf planet, and even the type of scalar particles older than the Big Bang.

Despite the fact that the dark matter particle has not yetfound, scientists know: the gravity of its clumps can distort light from distant objects. Researchers used this distortion, called gravitational lensing, to learn more about its properties, including measuring its temperature.

The study authors note that the cold model(more massive) dark matter works well on very large scales, but it introduces many inconsistencies at the scale of individual galaxies. The imperfections of this theory led to the emergence of other models, as well as “warm” dark matter with lighter and faster-moving particles.

Researchers measured the brightness of seven distant quasars with a gravitational lens to find the changes caused by her, and used these results to measure the size of her lenses.

Observations ruled out "hot" dark matter,whose particles move at a speed close to the speed of light. Most likely, the model of “warm” dark matter is the most correct, but one should not exclude the fact that it is “cold”, the study says.

Earlier, Russian physicists have developed a newmaterial - the basis for the detector of light dark matter. An antiferromagnetic topological insulator will make it possible to create axion insulators capable of capturing its particles.