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Rice experiment rules out dark-matter masses across nine orders

9/9/2026

24 5 Full Breakdown

Summary

Story summary

Rice University reported its levitated-magnet experiment excluded dark-matter masses across nine orders of magnitude at 95 % confidence.
The POLONAISE setup levitated a 0.356-milligram permanent magnet inside a superconducting tantalum trap.
Data collected from Dec 22, 2025 to Jan 21, 2026 yielded 219.66 hours (9.15 days) of exposure.
Eight candidate impulses were treated as possible dark-matter events for limit calculations.

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Story summary

Rice University reported its levitated-magnet experiment excluded dark-matter masses across nine orders of magnitude at 95 % confidence.
The POLONAISE setup levitated a 0.356-milligram permanent magnet inside a superconducting tantalum trap.
Data collected from Dec 22, 2025 to Jan 21, 2026 yielded 219.66 hours (9.15 days) of exposure.
Eight candidate impulses were treated as possible dark-matter events for limit calculations.