That is ONLY ASSUMED, based on possibly faulty interpretation of data due to having blinders on regarding certain KNOWN physics.Physicists are reimagining dark matter
There might be new particles, forces and perhaps even a Dark Big Bang
Readers of this paper will probably need no reminder that most of the universe is missing. The atoms and light you see—from people to planets, stars and galaxies—make up just 5% of the universe. The rest is a two-part mystery—a substance called “dark energy”, which pushes space apart, comprises 68% of the cosmos; the rest, around 27%, is dark matter.
This is actually the least convincing argument these days for missing mass ... as explained on this forum time and again.Dark matter emits no light and scientists only know it exists because, when they look into the night sky, they see galaxies rotating a lot faster than they should.
Very expensive searching, one might add, costing MANY BILLIONS OF DOLLARS.But after more than half a century of fruitless searching,
Because they latched onto a gnome with religious fervor.compounded by a string of recent astronomical anomalies, cdm is in trouble.
And then, ironically, to fix their model, they introduce more unproven gnomes … while still keeping the original faulty ASSUMPTION.
This REEKS of desperation.Physicists are gravitating towards a different theoretical framework, known as “Self-Interacting Dark Matter” (SIDM), which proposes the existence of a hidden universe of dark particles and dark forces, that exists in parallel with the familiar particles and forces of normal matter. This dark universe could even have had its own “Dark Big Bang”, a birth event that would have taken place some time after the more familiar Big Bang that began our universe 14bn years ago.
No, it does not “almost perfectly reproduce” them, otherwise astrophysics wouldn’t now be in crisis. Otherwise there wouldn’t be so many unexpected observations from their telescopes. Otherwise they could explain observations like the helical rotation the telescopes have discovered in plasmas at all scales of the universe … including their so called “cosmic web”.cdm forms one pillar of the Standard Model of Cosmology. The other, which aims to explain dark energy, is known by the Greek letter Lambda. Together these descriptions almost perfectly reproduce the evolution of the kinds of large-scale structures that astronomers observe in the universe today—galaxies, galactic clusters and gargantuan galactic superclusters.
Just like the blind men were agnostic about what an elephant is?The theory is agnostic about exactly what particles make up dark matter.
Maybe because they don’t exist? Oh dear ... that's a thought to awful to consider for even a second!But the most promising candidates until now have been known as Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (wimps). … snip …
Dozens of highly sensitive [EXPENSIVE] detectors have been built around the world to spot wimps. … snip … Unfortunately, despite more than 40 years and millions [no, BILLIONS] of dollars spent on the search, wimps have remained stubbornly elusive.
The truth is that with as many knobs as they have in their simulation models, they could reproduce ANY large scale structures and still claim dark matter exists.That is not the only problem with cdm. The theory does a terrific job at reproducing the large-scale structures of the universe but, as new telescopes allow astronomers to peer ever deeper into distant galaxies and rapidly improving supercomputer simulations allow them to explore the implications of cdm at smaller scales, it is becoming clear that the theory does not do as well at reproducing much finer-grained structures of the universe.
There are more but the rest are basically ignored because the last thing the mainstream wants to highlight is just how many anomalies their theory now has.Two anomalies stand out.
Gee … that sounds like more than a mere “anomaly”. That almost sounds like proof that dark matter does not exist.The first concerns the structure of galaxies. cdm implies that, since it moves slowly and feels the effects of gravity, dark matter ought to accumulate in unfathomably high densities in the cores of galaxies. But this is not what astronomers observe.
Again, that sounds like more than just an anomaly. I’d call it an observation threatening the whole shaky foundation of modern astrophysics.The second anomaly concerns satellite galaxies. cdm implies that large galaxies ought to be orbited by thousands of smaller satellite galaxies. But this is also not what astronomers observe.
In other words, by activating and choosing different knob settings, and by creating new gnomes.These discrepancies can be explained by SIDM.
Sort of like adding several more epicycles to the already questionable theory?Simple versions of the theory propose just one new elementary dark matter particle and one new fundamental “dark force”; in more complex versions there is a smorgasbord of new dark particles and forces, continually interacting with each other.
Now isn’t that ironic? After all this time, they’re now trying to return to the “equivalent” of electromagnetism, while ignoring the real thing and keeping their DM gravy train rolling. Talk about intellectual dishonesty. OR IS IT JUST PLAIN GREED?One version of SIDM introduces a new dark force that is equivalent to electromagnetism
Oh lovely, yet another gnome they can waste money on trying to find. But hey, I’m sure by now all their houses need remodels or news additions.In the conditions that defined the early universe, but which are thankfully no longer present in the universe today, both cdm and SIDM allow for the possibility of “dark stars”.
Anyone want to put money on these being dark stars? No takers? I don’t blame you, with these people’s track record.In a paper published in the journal pnas in July 2023, Katherine Freese, a particle physicist at the University of Texas, and her colleagues identified three objects old enough, bright enough and compact enough to be dark-star candidates in data collected by the James Webb Space Telescope. “If these turn out to be dark stars—and that can be confirmed with more data—their masses, temperatures and emission spectra could one day be used to distinguish between dark matter models, including between cdm and SIDM,” she says.
Call it the Back Up Gnome, just in case the first one falls flat.Dr Freese has also made the case for a Dark Big Bang that could have given rise to dark matter independently of normal matter in the days after the Big Bang.
“As much as a month”? LOL! And talk about counting angels on the head of pins. See how easy it is to create new gnomes?The traditional model of the universe says that matter and dark matter were produced at the same time. The earliest evidence of dark matter, however, only appears later in the early evolution of the universe, when cosmic structure starts to form.
One explanation for this is that matter and dark matter did not, in fact, appear together, but that dark matter entered the universe in a second cataclysmic release of energy from the vacuum—the Dark Big Bang—as much as a month after the traditional Big Bang.
Anyone want to put money on them proving the Dark Big Bang? No takers?If there was such a Dark Big Bang, it would have left a clear signature—a pattern in the frequencies of the gravitational waves that hum across the universe—that could be picked up by future gravitational-wave detectors.
“Could”? Folks, that’s them begging for more BILLIONS of dollars to waste. Mainstream astrophysicists are like pigs at the public's money trough. It’s not their money, so eat as much as you can and don’t give a damn if it’s wasted.Finally, there may also be ways to detect self-interacting dark matter directly. The fact that SIDM candidates are considerably lighter than wimps means that traditional wimp detectors, operating in the past few decades, are likely to have missed them. New experiments could change that.
And has it found any? NO.The FASER detector at the LHC, which began collecting data in 2022, is designed to detect extremely light dark-matter particles, such as dark photons, that might be produced in collisions at the lhc.
Anyone want to put money on them finding DM? What? No takers?Similarly the Supercdms experiment at snolab will begin operations in 2024. Based in an abandoned mine in Canada, Supercdms is designed to detect subtle collisions between light dark matter particles—including SIDM candidates—and atoms in silicon and germanium crystals.
And those who depend on the DM gnome for their livelihood remain resolute in their refusal to give up looking of it.For now, however, dark matter remains resolute in its refusal to yield its secrets.
Especially when the public is so willing to fund their money making (for them) ideas, no matter how unsuccessful their track record has been with regards to their earlier ideas.Fortunately, physicists are rarely short of ideas.
Modern science is endless optimism … about an endless stream of gnomes … the search for which endlessly funds good lifestyles for an endless stream of astrophysicists, those who manage them, and those who report on their endless studies. DM has become an industry too big to fail.SIDM may not be the one that unlocks the true nature of dark matter, but one idea eventually will.
… while articles like this offer a romantic vision of what, in truth, is a SCAM. Just saying ...In the meantime, it offers a romantic vision of the cosmos.