(Yicai Global) June 20 -- The research group behind the Chinese Dark Matter Experiment, led by one of the country's top universities Tsinghua, has increased the sensitivity of dark matter detection equipment to a world-leading level.

The team used a germanium-based system to search for weakly interacting massive particles, or WIMPS, which are thought to constitute dark matter, according to an article on the website of peer-reviewed scientific journal Physical Review Letters.

Dark matter is a hypothetical matter type that existing theories cannot explain. It is smaller than electrons and photons and has no electric charge, does not interfere with electrons and can pass through electromagnetic and gravitational fields. It was thought to exist in every galaxy throughout the universe, but a March discovery of a galaxy with little or no dark matter shows that may not be the case.

High-purity germanium is commonly used as a semiconductor by international experimental groups looking to detect dark matter, said Yue Qian, author of the study's paper and a professor at Tsinghua. Yue and the CDEX group have been researching direct detection of dark matter at China Jinping Underground Laboratory in the southwest province of Sichuan since 2010, and the latest experiment was their first with a 10-kilogram germanium detector array.

Editor: James Boynton