There's a possibility that a discontinuity in data analysis might have an impact on fundamental physics.
Many dark matter detection experiments rely on detecting an annual modulation, i.e. an excess of detection events later in the year, when the Earth would be going into the 'dark matter wind'. This helps one distinguish the desired signal from backgrounds that don't change throughout the year, like cosmic rays or ambient radioactivity.
One particular experiment has been claiming a positive detection for two decades, leading to a lot of confusion in the field. It was recently argued [0] that this is due to a discontinuity in their data analysis. The team might be analyzing their annual modulation by subtracting out the average rate in each year, leading to a discontinuity at each year boundary. So if their detection rate is slowly going up, e.g. due to detector aging, it would look like an annual modulation, where the rate is lower in the beginning of the year and higher at the end!
Many dark matter detection experiments rely on detecting an annual modulation, i.e. an excess of detection events later in the year, when the Earth would be going into the 'dark matter wind'. This helps one distinguish the desired signal from backgrounds that don't change throughout the year, like cosmic rays or ambient radioactivity.
One particular experiment has been claiming a positive detection for two decades, leading to a lot of confusion in the field. It was recently argued [0] that this is due to a discontinuity in their data analysis. The team might be analyzing their annual modulation by subtracting out the average rate in each year, leading to a discontinuity at each year boundary. So if their detection rate is slowly going up, e.g. due to detector aging, it would look like an annual modulation, where the rate is lower in the beginning of the year and higher at the end!
0: https://arxiv.org/abs/2002.00459