Dark matter is made of WIMPs

The argument

WIMPs initially originated as an outcome of string theory. Scientists then started looking at them as dark matter candidates, which is an unusual route for a proposal to take: the particles were not devised to explain dark matter but fell out of a theory pursued for other reasons, and were only afterwards noticed to have the properties the problem calls for. That history is much of what makes them attractive. WIMPs are attractive candidates because they show up in two theories in physics and attempt to solve more than one question. A particle that answers only the question it was introduced for explains nothing beyond itself, whereas one arriving independently from another part of physics carries support that does not depend on the dark matter problem at all. Scientists study the hypothetical WIMPs by attempting to sense them in underground detectors as they pass through the earth and by trying to create them in accelerators. The two approaches are complementary: the first waits for particles already present to interact, and is placed underground so that ordinary radiation is screened out by the rock above, while the second attempts to produce them from energy under controlled conditions. WIMPs are very massive particles that scientists proposed as a component of dark matter. They interact weakly with normal matter, which is why they would be invisible while still exerting gravitational influence, and equally why they are so difficult to detect at all. Scientists predict that they go back to the beginning of the universe 13.7 billion years ago, but scientists did not discover enough of them to account for dark matter. WIMPs include heavy neutrinos which have been strong candidates for dark matter.

Premises

Counter-arguments

WIMPs interact weakly with normal matter and are very difficult to detect. Most of them pass through earth without getting stuck or without colliding with normal matter like materials on earth. If particles do not collide with normal matter like with a detector they cannot be sensed. WIMPs need highly sensitive equipment and research has not reached the ability to detect them. The large underground xenon detector (LUX) in South Dakota is the major instrument for studying WIMPs and it hasn't detected a WIMP yet since 2014. Scientists cannot be exactly sure of the existence of WIMPs if they cannot detect them.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] The premise misattributes the candidate's origin: WIMPs arise from supersymmetric extensions of the Standard Model and from the observation that a weakly-interacting particle of roughly that mass would freeze out at about the observed abundance — not from string theory — and appearing in more than one theory is a reason to look for a particle rather than evidence that it exists. [Rejecting P2] No WIMP has ever been detected, and the successive generations of underground experiments have pushed the plausible parameter space down by orders of magnitude without a signal, which is the opposite of support; heavy neutrinos are also not WIMPs in the intended sense, since standard neutrinos are too light and too fast-moving to form structure the way the observations require.