Historische natuurkundeproef kan donkere materie opsporen

Researchers propose modernizing Henry Cavendish's 18th-century torsion balance experiment to detect axions, hypothetical dark matter particles. The updated apparatus would use the same mechanical sensitivity as the original gravity experiment but tune it to respond to oscillating gravitational fields produced by axions streaming through Earth. This approach could achieve sensitivity roughly 10,000 times greater than existing dark matter detectors by exploiting resonant enhancement, where the pendulum's natural frequency matches the axion field's oscillation rate.