Is BEC still considered a viable dark matter candidate.

[petergreat]

There were proposals that dark matter might be ultra-light scalar particles in Bose-Einstein condensation phase, but the idea doesn't seem to have caught on. What are the advantages / disadvantages of this model?

 

[Bill_K]

The currently most popular dark matter models assume its some type of WIMP, i.e. a particle that interacts on the same scale as weak interactions. If this is so, we are getting very close to detecting it.

Especially the Xenon100 experiment should soon have enough sensitivity to either detect or rule out WIMPS. If they fail to see it, you can be sure the whole idea of dark matter will be rehashed, and other theories like the one you mention will attract more interest.

 

[petergreat]

Especially the Xenon100 experiment should soon have enough sensitivity to either detect or rule out WIMPS. If they fail to see it, you can be sure the whole idea of dark matter will be rehashed, and other theories like the one you mention will attract more interest.

What do you mean by "soon"? Couple of months?
Also, I hear Xenon 1t is planned as a more powerful probe, so Xenon100 shouldn't be the end of the story for WIMPs?