Dark matter research: Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technologies installs measuring instruments in Brazil

25.08.2025

At the campus of the Observatório Nacional, researchers from the Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology (Leibniz-IPHT) in Jena, together with Brazilian partners, have installed a new measurement station. It is part of the worldwide project "Global Network of Optical Magnetometers for Exotic physics searches" (GNOME) and is designed to help address one of the great unsolved questions in modern physics: the nature of dark matter.

Dark matter cannot be directly detected with conventional measurement methods. However, its influence on the motion of galaxies and the structure of the cosmos is demonstrable. Understanding its nature remains one of the central unsolved problems in physics. The international GNOME (Global Network of Optical Magnetometers for Exotic physics searches) collaboration is specifically looking for signs of hypothetical particles that might interact with atoms inside magnetometers. The project aims to use laser magnetometers to detect tiny disturbances that could arise if the Earth were to pass through a field of dark matter. Around the world, highly sensitive sensors are in operation, monitoring specific quantum states of atoms and thus forming a globally distributed detector.

The new GNOME station in Brazil is the network's first permanently operating station in the Southern Hemisphere. This geographical expansion is of particular significance for the project. GNOME currently consists of more than a dozen stations in over ten countries. The station developed by the Leibniz-IPHT in Jena is particularly robust and long-term stable. Variations in temperature, humidity, laser power, and magnetic field are actively regulated. The project was funded through the German Research Foundation (DFG) initiative "RioGNOME."

Dark matter research: Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technologies installs measuring instruments in Brazil

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