The Detection of Mirror Matter
Since the physics of mirror matter would be governed by laws different than those of ordinary matter, mirror matter would be difficult to detect. However, there is the faintest possibility that mirror stars could be detected through their explosion as a supernova. It would be a ghostly explosion with only neutrinos to prove its occurrence (as when the mirror neutrnos oscillated into ordinary neutrinos, their bombarding influx would be detected, yet not their undetectable mirror source).
A second manner with which it may be possible to observe a mirror star's presence, as experimented by Bohdan Paczynski in 1986, is through their ability to bend light due to their gravitational pull. If a mirror star were to be in the direct path between an observer and an ordinary star, the mirror star's gravity would cause the ordinary star's light to bend, as if passing through a magnifying glass, thus leading scientists to infer the presence of the mirror star.
Further proof of the existence of mirror matter is the experiment with orthopositronium, a substance which is apparently very sensitive to the mirror world. In simplest terms, orthopositronium should decay in 142 nanoseconds …but it does not. Its lifetime is actually 0.1 per cent shorter. Scientists believe that this premature decay is due to the fact that orthopositronium oscillates into its mirror partner - like neutrinos oscillate into different flavors!
Dreaming Of A Mirror Universe | What is Mirror Matter? | What are Neutrinos? | The Solar and Atmospheric Neutrino Anomalies | Nature's Four Forces | The Detection of Mirror Matter | How Will These Theories Affect our Lives? | Did You Know...? | Conclusion | Bibliography | Acknowledgements | Related Links