Something is hidden and the researchers decided to find this “something”, although they still don’t really understand what they are hunting for. The Universe known to us contains only a tenth of visible matter. Rest? It is simply not there or invisible. Earthly vehicles are not able to resolve “something” except for the effects of gravity, affecting known objects. Researchers call the missing material the dark sector — a class of energetic and massive particles that must exist in space but do not come into contact with luminous matter.
A new project has emerged at the National Institute of Nuclear Physics in Italy, trying to detect all these dark substances with the help of a theoretical dark photon (the dark sector of ordinary light photons). If scientists find it, they will receive evidence of the fifth force of the Universe, which will be breakthroughs in the world of physics. Italian researchers are planning to bombard the diamond plate with a beam of antimatter particles (positrons) acting as an antimaterial version of the electrons. Under normal circumstances, positrons and electrons annul each other, creating a pair of ordinary photons. If dark photons exist, then periodically annihilation of positron electrons should form one. Instead of contact, a dark and ordinary photon would appear side by side. Scientists hope that the positron beam in the experiment will be divided into a sufficient number of electrons in a diamond to produce a small amount of photon. There is no direct detection of a dark background, but the proof is the missing photon.
If part of the energy from the annihilation of the positron-electron disappears (enters the dark sector), then it will be possible to confirm the existence of a dark photon and even calculate its mass. It really will be a coup, because it will present not only a new particle, but also a completely different force.
In the luminous universe there are 4 known forces. Electromagnetism carries light energy and binds atoms. A stable force holds particles inside atoms together, and a weak force causes them to decay and divide. Gravity holds objects and controls space movements. Dark photons can become the fifth force and then you have to make significant amendments to the textbooks on physics.