Gizmodo “Now, scientists are preparing to hunt for signatures of dark matter particles in the Earth itself. It might sound a little farfetched—but this strategy has some advantages over some current dark matter searches, which rely on massive, expensive, custom-built facilities. ‘We’re not going to build anything,” study author Katherine Freese, theoretical astrophysicist and professor […]
Quanta Magazine “We’re always rooting around for alternative ways to do things,” said Katherine Freese, a theoretical physicist at the University of Michigan and architect of the ideas behind some of the existing detectors in operation. A subterranean paleo-detector would work in a manner similar to current direct-detection methods, according to Freese and her colleagues. […]
LSA Physics Dark stars may help solve a long-standing mystery concerning how supermassive black holes — like the one believed to reside at the center of the Milky Way, shown here — formed in the early universe.
ScienceNews “Performing an experiment made with the same material as DAMA is important, says Katherine Freese of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. ‘The fact that they’ve got a working sodium iodide detector is huge.” But, Freese says, what’s really needed to check DAMA’s claims is for COSINE to search for an annual change.”
Vice “Fear: Climate change. At this rate, I‘m sad to think what the world will look like a hundred years from now. I won‘t be alive but maybe my son will. I don‘t want him to have to move to Mars. Hope: Humans are very smart. We can think not only of solutions to problems […]
Wired The hunt for dark matter particles to date has mostly focused on real-time detection. But certain minerals could contain historical records of these particles stretching back millions of years.
Astronomy Though only a handful of scientists are currently dedicated to studying these objects, Freese expects the field to grow in the future. “We’ve made a prediction, so if you see something that looks like that, then the motivation for studying dark stars will go through the roof,” she says.
Nature “Researchers using sophisticated detectors sunk deep underground have searched for signs of dark matter for decades. But now, Katherine Freese, a physicist at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and her colleagues suggest that minerals such as halite (sodium chloride) and zabuyelite (lithium carbonate), can act as ready-made detectors.”
Astronomy Earth’s periodic passage through the galaxy’s disk could initiate a series of events that ultimately lead to geological cataclysms and mass extinctions.
Science “’However, it’s too early to rule out a more mundane explanation for the unexpectedly strong absorption,’ cautions Katherine Freese, an astrophysicist at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. ‘Is [this scenario] the only way to explain this? Of course not.’”