The disappearing baryon may be hidden in interstellar space

 Observing the light emitted by the young universe, the data obtained show that ordinary matter accounts for about 5% of the total mass and energy of the universe, but the ordinary matter that can be seen now only accounts for about half of the expected total matter, which “disappears” Where did half of ordinary matter go? Scientists wrote in the latest issue of "Nature" magazine that they studied fast radio bursts from other galaxies and found that half of the ordinary matter "disappeared" in the universe actually lurks in interstellar space.


   These "disappearing" ordinary substances are composed of baryons such as protons and neutrons, and have puzzled cosmologists for nearly 20 years. Although they have always suspected that these substances are hidden between galaxies, "but we cannot detect them with certainty because they are very scattered and do not emit bright light." said Jason Hessel, an astrophysicist at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. .


  The way to clarify all baryons in interstellar space is to rely on the rapid radio bursts (FRBs) emitted by other galaxies, which may be produced by high-energy activities around neutron stars or black holes. Even if no one knows the cause of these FRBs, they can also serve as useful baryon detectors. FRB's high-frequency, high-energy radio waves travel through galaxy matter faster than its low-frequency waves. The more interstellar matter the FRB pulse wave passes through, the farther its low-frequency waves fall, and a detectable tail phenomenon occurs when the radio signal reaches the earth.


Astrophysicist Kosavir Prochaska at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and his colleagues studied 5 FRBs from 5 galaxies-detected by the Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder (hermes 2021 bags) radio telescope . For each FRB, the researchers compared the arrival time of radio waves of different frequencies to calculate the number of baryons encountered by these FRBs when they crossed the interstellar space. Then, using the distance between the galaxy where the FRB is located and the Milky Way, they calculated this The baryon density of the path.


  Research shows that the average density of matter between the Milky Way and the five FRB host galaxies is about 1 baryon/cubic meter. Prochaska said that the density of matter in the Milky Way is about one million times the density of interstellar matter, which makes interstellar matter "very sparse", but all these matter together can explain the disappearance of ordinary matter in the universe and make ordinary matter Matter accounts for about 5% of the total mass and energy of the modern universe.


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   Most of the matter in the universe has never revealed its true face to humans. In addition to 95% of dark energy and dark matter, half of the remaining 5% of "normal matter" is missing. In the distant universe, there will be short and violent radio wave bursts, which are short in time and strong in energy. This is FRB. Several FRBs were found this time thanks to ASKAP in Australia, which is an array of 36 radio antennas. The information obtained from the FRB shows that humans have no problem with the basic judgment of the composition of ordinary matter. Some ordinary matter does float in the endless interstellar space.

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