In a recent Terra X interview with Prof. Harald Lesch (Ludwig Maximilian University Munich), TUM School of Natural Sciences and Max Planck Institute for Physics Prof. Karoline Schäffner and colleague from the Austrian Academy of Sciences and Technical University Vienna, Prof. Florian Reindl, share new approaches to detecting dark matter, one of the greatest mysteries in physics. Although dark matter is believed to make up a significant portion of the universe, it has not yet been directly observed.

In their COSINUS experiment, located 1,400 meters underground at Italy’s Gran Sasso laboratory, they aim to make sense of conflicting results from earlier studies. Using sodium iodide crystals, the team combines measurements of faint light signals and tiny temperature changes to better distinguish potential dark matter interactions from background noise.

This innovative method could help confirm whether earlier signals (detected for decades but never independently verified) are indeed evidence of dark matter, bringing science a step closer to understanding the universe’s hidden mass.

View the video feature (in German): https://www.zdf.de/play/dokus/terra-x-harald-lesch-102/interview-mit-karoline-schaeffner-und-florian-reindl-102 

More information and links

• Prof. Karoline Schäffner’s research project COSINUS at the Max Planck Institute for Physics: https://www.mpp.mpg.de/en/research/cosinus
• COSINUS experiment home page https://www.cosinus.it/ 

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