Dark Matter Detector Finds the Rarest Event Ever Seen in the Universe

Since the 1960s, scientists have theorized that the Universe is filled with a mysterious, invisible mass. Known as “dark matter“, this mass is estimated to make up roughly 85% of the matter in the Universe and a quarter of its energy density. While this mass has been indirectly observed and studied, all attempts at determining its true nature have so far failed.

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from link

…. it did observe the decay of Xenon-124 atomic nuclei for the first time.

For a number of reasons, this was an immense accomplishment. Aside from being a historic first, the half-life measured for Xenon-124 is about one trillion times longer than the age of the Universe itself (13.8 billion years). This makes the radioactive decay they observed – the so-called double electron capture of Xenon-124 – the rarest process ever observed in a detector.

Tau.Neutrino said:

from link

…. it did observe the decay of Xenon-124 atomic nuclei for the first time.

For a number of reasons, this was an immense accomplishment. Aside from being a historic first, the half-life measured for Xenon-124 is about one trillion times longer than the age of the Universe itself (13.8 billion years). This makes the radioactive decay they observed – the so-called double electron capture of Xenon-124 – the rarest process ever observed in a detector.

Nice!

I wonder if Xenon-124 is on this website https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_radioactive_isotopes_by_half-life . No, it isn’t, although Xenon-136 is. Xenon-124 has a half life eight times as long as Xenon-136. 1.8*10^22 years for Xenon-124.

“Observation of two-neutrino double electron capture in 124Xe with XENON1T”. Nature. 568 (7753): 532–535. 2019. doi:10.1038/s41586-019-1124-4. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1124-4

Still no dark matter.

mollwollfumble said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

from link

…. it did observe the decay of Xenon-124 atomic nuclei for the first time.

For a number of reasons, this was an immense accomplishment. Aside from being a historic first, the half-life measured for Xenon-124 is about one trillion times longer than the age of the Universe itself (13.8 billion years). This makes the radioactive decay they observed – the so-called double electron capture of Xenon-124 – the rarest process ever observed in a detector.

Nice!

I wonder if Xenon-124 is on this website https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_radioactive_isotopes_by_half-life . No, it isn’t, although Xenon-136 is. Xenon-124 has a half life eight times as long as Xenon-136. 1.8*10^22 years for Xenon-124.

“Observation of two-neutrino double electron capture in 124Xe with XENON1T”. Nature. 568 (7753): 532–535. 2019. doi:10.1038/s41586-019-1124-4. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1124-4

Still no dark matter.

And still no proton decay.