Scientists Detect Hints of Strange New Physics in The Universe's Background Radiation - ScienceAlert

A new measurement technique has revealed hints of a twist in the light - something that could be a sign of a violation of parity symmetry, hinting at physics outside the Standard Model.

And two physicists - Yuto Minami of the High Energy Accelerator Research Organisation in Japan; and Eiichiro Komatsu of the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Germany and Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe in Japan - believe they have found hints of it in the polarisation angle of the CMB.

This angle, described as β, could indicate a CMB interaction with dark matter or dark energy, the mysterious inward and outward forces that seem to dominate the Universe, but which we're unable to directly detect.

"If dark matter or dark energy interact with the light of the cosmic microwave background in a way that violates parity symmetry, we can find its signature in the polarisation data," Minami explained.

"We developed a new method to determine the artificial rotation using the polarised light emitted by dust in our Milky Way," Minami said.

Milky Way sources of radiation are from much closer than the CMB, so they are not affected by dark matter or dark energy.

"It is clear that we have not found definitive evidence for new physics yet; higher statistical significance is needed to confirm this signal," said astrophysicist Eiichiro Komatsu of the Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe