WIMP (weakly interacting massive particle)
A hypothesized class of particle — generically including the supersymmetric neutralino, LSP, Higgsino, gravitino, and sneutrino — that would interact with ordinary matter only through gravity and the weak force, and that for decades has been physics' leading candidate for the universe's non-baryonic dark matter. Its appeal rests partly on the "WIMP miracle": a weak-scale relic left over from the early universe naturally freezes out at roughly the right abundance to explain the observed dark-matter density, with no fine-tuning required.
The vault currently holds the WIMP from two unconnected registers. One is historical-bibliometric: claim-wimp-evidential-keystone-role-mid-1980s traces how a convergence of independent results (Gershtein–Zel'dovich 1966, Cowsik–McClelland 1973, Tremaine–Gunn 1979, Drukier–Stodolsky 1984, Goodman–Witten 1985) gave the WIMP a coordinating "evidential keystone" role by the mid-1980s, and claim-wimp-cross-field-bridging-role-weakened-since-2015 shows that role weakening in the literature since 2015 even as the WIMP stays the single most-mentioned candidate. The other is material: claim-pandax-ii-2016-modern-steel-still-required-scrap-avoidance-for-low-background and claim-zhang-2016-names-scrap-metal-feedstock-as-commercial-steels-cobalt-60-source document what it actually took, in 2016, to build a low-radioactivity pressure vessel for a WIMP direct-detection experiment (PandaX-II). Both registers concern the same hypothesized particle; neither cites the other.
References
- claim-wimp-evidential-keystone-role-mid-1980s
- claim-wimp-cross-field-bridging-role-weakened-since-2015
- claim-allzen-four-condition-dark-matter-discovery-framework
- claim-pandax-ii-2016-modern-steel-still-required-scrap-avoidance-for-low-background
- claim-zhang-2016-names-scrap-metal-feedstock-as-commercial-steels-cobalt-60-source
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