An international team of astrophysicists and cosmologists including researchers from Kobayashi-Maskawa Institute for the Origin of Particles and the Universe (KMI) at Nagoya University, the Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (Kavli IPMU) at the University of Tokyo, and Princeton University have submitted a set of five papers, measuring the value for the “clumpiness” of the universe’s dark matter, known to cosmologists as S₈, of 0.76, which aligns with values that other gravitational lensing surveys have found in looking at the relatively recent universe, but not with the value of 0.83 derived from the Cosmic Microwave Background, which dates back to about 380,000 years after the beginning of the universe.

The gap between these two values is small, but as more and more studies confirm each of the two values, the gap appears to be scientifically significant. While the possibility remains that  there is  some as-yet unrecognized error or mistake in one of these two measurements, there is also the fascinating possibility that the standard cosmological model is incomplete in some way. 

Hironao Miyatake, Associate Professor at KMI, says:

“The data analysis in the third year of the Subaru Telescope has made more certain the limitation of the Standard Model of the Universe, which has not been broken for 20 years. Next, we will gradually enter the phase of searching for what new physics will emerge from the breakdown of the Standard Model of the Universe. I am very excited to continue working on this big problem together with young researchers who have gained experience through this analysis.”

Please read the press release for further information.