While the experiment eliminates some WIMP candidates, it opens the door to other particle models that will need a larger and more sensitive experiment to detect, said Brown University physicist Richard Gaitskell.
A dark matter particle remains the leading theory to explain the universe's so-called "missing mass." Roughly 80 percent of the universe's mass cannot be directly detected. Its existence is inferred by measuring its gravitational impacts on the motions of galaxies and on the bending of light passing by.
For now, the hunt for WIMPS moves to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in Geneva, the world's most-powerful atom smasher.
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"LHC is looking to observe new particles that would provide the first evidence of a new theory that goes beyond the existing Standard Model. It is likely that if they see new particles, the associated physics will also provide an explanation for how dark matter particles were produced in the early universe," Gaitskell wrote in an email to DNews.
"At present, LHC has not seen any clear evidence for such new physics. We are waiting to see their next new analyses in the coming weeks," he added.
Evidence of for dark matter also could come from the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, or AMS, a particle detector attached to the International Space Station.
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AMS looks for charged particles, such as protons and anti-protons, which could stem from the annihilation of dark matter particles in the galaxy.
Scientists also are planning a LUX follow-on experiment that will be 70 times more sensitive than the original.
Construction of LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ), which will use 10 tons of liquid xenon compared to LUX's one-third ton, is underway. The detector is expected to begin operations in 2020, said physicist Harry Nelson, with the University of California, Santa Barbara.