weakly interacting massive particle
- noun
- Specialized
:
partícula masiva débilmente interactuante
- Favored candidates nowadays are weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), perhaps 100 times as heavy as the proton, predicted by extensions of the standard model of particle physics.
- weakly interacting massive particles, or WIMPs
- weakly interacting massive particles (or WIMPs)
- name stands for "weakly interacting massive particle"
Machos and Wimps are candidates for the dark matter, and those stand for weakly interacting massive particles.
- Machos and Wimps are candidates for the dark matter, and those stand for weakly interacting massive particles.
Examples
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Currently, one of the strongest candidates for dark matter is weakly interacting massive particles, or WIMPs, although so far this hypothetical particle has not yet been directly detected.
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So weakly interacting massive particles, axions, black holes.
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Hence, the name WIMP for weakly interacting massive particle.
Academic text (1993) -
Physicists suspect that dark matter takes the form of weakly interacting massive particles, called WIMPs.
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The most likely candidate for the source of dark matter is a class of particles known as weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), named because they rarely interact with ordinary matter.
Synonyms
4
9.9
A particle with large mass that hardly interacts with normal matter and may be part of dark matter
Surface Forms
Morphology
weakly + interact + massive + particle
The phrase is fully compositional: 'weakly' modifies 'interacting' and 'massive' modifies 'particle', so a learner who knows the parts can infer it denotes a particle that is large in mass and interacts only weakly. Although the term is technical (referring to a hypothetical dark‑matter subatomic particle), the basic meaning is directly derivable from the constituents, so a B1 learner familiar with the words would grasp the core concept.
Etymology
Weakly interacting massive particle is a name for a tiny particle that is massive, meaning very heavy, and weakly interacting, meaning it hardly touches normal matter. Imagine a heavy, almost invisible ball passing through the Earth without bumping anything, and that image helps explain why scientists use it to describe the unseen gravity of 'dark matter'.