A hunt for ghostly particles found strange signals coming from Antarctic ice. Scientists are still trying to explain them

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Scientists are trying to solve a decade -long puzzle by identifying the anomalous signals that were discovered from the ice below in Antarctica.

The strange radio waves appeared while searching for another unusual phenomenon: high -energy cosmic particles known as neutrons. When reaching the Earth from the maximum borders of the universe, “ghost” neutrons are often called “ghost” because they are very volatile, or vaporize, and can go through any kind of issue without change.

Over the past decade, the researchers conducted multiple experiences using large areas of water and ice designed Look for neutronsWhich can shed light on mysterious cosmic rays, the most vital molecules in the universe. One of these projects was the transient transient antenna in Antarctic in NASA, or Anita, which flew balloons that carry tools over the Antarctic continent between 2006 and 2016.

During this research, Anita picked up anomalous radio waves that do not seem to be neutrons.

The signals came from the bottom of the horizon, indicating that they have gone through thousands of miles from the rocks before reaching the detector. But radio waves should have been absorbed by the rock. The Anita team believed that these anomalies cannot be explained by the current understanding of particle physics.

Follow -up and analyzes notes with other tools, including one by the Pierre Ogler Observatory in Argentina, were unable to find the same signals. The results of Pierre Oger’s cooperation were published in the magazine Physical review messages In March.

The origin of the anomalous signals is still unclear.

“Our new study indicates that such references were not seen through an experiment … like the Pierre Ogler Observatory,” Wesel said. “Therefore, it does not indicate that there is new physics, but rather more information to add it to the story.”

Scientists say that the largest and most sensitive discoveries may be able to solve the mystery, or ultimately prove whether abnormal references were a coincidence, while continuing to search for mysterious neutrons and their sources.

Search for neutrons

The discovery of neutrons on Earth allows researchers to follow their sources, which scientists believe that the cosmic rays that hit the atmosphere of our planet.

The most active cosmic rays in the universe are formed, and they are often formed from protons or atomic nuclei, and they unleash all over the universe because everything that produces them is so strong that it reduces the great capabilities of Hadron. Neutrons can help astronomers better understand cosmic rays and what they call them across the universe.

But it is difficult to find neutrons because they do not contain a mass and can pass through the most extreme environments, such as stars and entire galaxies, unchanged. However, they interact with water and ice.

Justin Vandinbroke, Associate Professor of Physics at Wisconsin University, said that Anita was designed to search for the highest neutrium energy in the universe, in higher energies than it has been discovered yet. He said that the radio antennas are looking for a short pulse of radio waves that are produced when neutrino collides with a seed in the ice in Antarctica, leading to a shower of low energy molecules.

During her trips, Anita found high -energy fountains from the molecules coming from ice, a type of upside down shower of cosmic rays. The detector is also sensitive to the ultra -energy -energy cosmic rays that create a radio explosion that works like a lamp beam of radio waves.

When Anita sees a cosmic beam, the lamp beam is in fact an explosion of radio waves of one billion from a second period that can be set like a wave to show how it is reflected on the ice.

Data anomaly

Twice in their data from Anita trips, the experience team monitored signals that pass through the ice at an acute angle than ever before, making it impossible to track signals to their original sources.

“The radio waves that we discovered were nearly a decade of angles with very slope angles, like 30 degrees below the surface of the ice,” Wesel said.

The neutrons can travel across many materials, but not along the road across the ground.

He wrote in an email: “They are expected to arrive a little from the horizon, as there is not much of the land to be absorbed.” “Anomalist events are interesting because they seem to come from the bottom of the horizon, so the neutrons will have to travel across most of the Earth. This is not possible according to the standard model of particle physics.”

Pierre Ogler’s cooperation, which includes hundreds of scientists around the world, analyzed more than a decade to try to understand the abnormal signals discovered by Anita.

The team also used their observatory to try to find the same signals. The AUGER Observatory is a hybrid detector that uses two ways to find and study cosmic rays. One way depends on finding high -energy molecules while interacting with water in the tanks on the surface of the Earth, and tracks other potential reactions with ultraviolet light in the atmosphere of our planet.

“The AUGER Observatory uses a completely different technology to monitor the super -energy cosmic aerobic shower, using the secondary glow of the charged molecules while passing the atmosphere to determine the direction of the cosmic beam that started it,” said Peter Gahim, Professor of Physics at the University of Hawaii at Manua. “By using a computer simulation when the particles shower will look like it if it has been behaved like abnormal events, they are able to create a type of template for similar events and then search for their data to see if something like that appears.”

Jeelham, who did not participate in the new research, designed the Anita experience and conducted other research to understand more about abnormal signs.

Vandinbroke said that while the AUGER Observatory was designed to measure the particles that were produced in the atmosphere that was produced in the atmosphere by high -energy cosmic rays, the team has re -designed their data analysis to search for upward air showers. Vandenbron did not work on the new study, but he reviewed the peer before publishing.

He said: “Ojer has a huge collection area for such events, greater than Anita.” “If the anomalies of Anita are produced by any particle that moves across the ground and then produces the shower up, AUGER must discover many of them, and he did not.”

A A separate follow -up study Using the ICECUBE experience, which contains an ice -depth sensors in Antarctica, I also looked for abnormal signals.

“Because Icecube is very sensitive, if the anomalies Anita are the neutrons, we will discover them,” wrote Vandenbrouucke, who held the position of Colead for the Icecube Neutrino Sources Sources Source Source Source Group between 2019 and 2022.

“It is an interesting problem because we still do not already have an explanation for what is anomaly, but what we know is that they are probably not representing neutrons,” Wesel said.

It is strange that there is a different type of neutrino, which is called Tau Neutrino, is one of the hypotheses that some scientists have offered as a cause of abnormal signals.

Tau Neutrons can be renewed. When they decompose in high energies, they produce another Tau Neutrino, as well as a particle called Tau Lepton – similar to the electron, but much heavier.

But what makes the Tau Neutrino scenario is very unlikely to be the slope of the angle connected to the signal.

“You expect that all these neutrons will be very close to the horizon, like perhaps one to five degrees below the horizon,” Wesel said. “This is 30 degrees below the horizon. There are a lot of materials. It will actually lose a lot of energy and cannot be discovered.”

The future of disclosure

At the end of the day, Jehim and other scientists have no idea about the origin of the anomalous Anita events. To date, there are no explanations that match the signals, which makes the withdrawal of scientists again to try to solve the mystery. The answer may be on the horizon, however.

Wissel also works on a new detector, which is the beneficial load of high power notes or Pueo, which will fly over the Antarctic continent for a month starting in December. Wesel said it is 10 times more sensitive than Anita, Buyu could reveal more information about the reason for the anomalous signals discovered by Anita.

“At the present time, it’s one of these long -term puzzles,” Wesel said. “I am excited because when we fly Boyu, we will have better sensitivity. In principle, we must be able to understand these anomalies that will come a long way to understand our backgrounds and detect neutrons in the future.”

Jehim said that Buyu, an abbreviation that refers to the owl Hawaii, should have a sensitivity to capture many anomalies and help scientists find an answer.

“Sometimes you just have to return to the drawing board and know what these things are really,” Wesel said. “The most likely scenario is that some worldly physics can be explained, but we are knocking on all doors to try to know what they are.”

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