If WIMPs are dark matter does this mean dark matter consists of real or virtual particles? Normally force carriers are virtual.
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WIMP is a name from astrophysics not particle physics. In this name the "W" simply means that whatever interactions the particles may have (in addition to gravity), they are small on average, with the result that the particles don't scatter electromagnetic radiation very much and they are not neutrons either. It is not a reference to the weak interaction of the Standard Model.
Proposed models for WIMPS propose them as real particles.
More generally, the concept of a virtual particle in field theory is a reference to an aspect of the fields which also implies there can be real particles. For example, suppose some kind of axion is proposed as candidate for a WIMP. In that case then the theory will support both real axions and virtual axions.
Andrew Steane
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