Dark Matter

Thread Starter

Wendy

Joined Mar 24, 2008
23,415
The thread about electrons got me to thinking, has anyone ever seen (even hypothetically) as structure of dark matter, or is it still a total mystery? It occurs that our classic proton, neutron, electron model (or the slight variation shown in antimatter) may not even be close, this animal could be so totally different that nothing we think we know applies.
 

Young_SR

Joined Jan 9, 2008
5
I'm pretty sure that no one knows for sure yet what constitutes the makeup of Dark Matter. However there is mounting evidence of its impact on observable matter and energy ( gravitational lensing, discrepancy of the motion of stars and galaxies ) to be persuasive about its presence.

It will certainly be a whopper of a paradigm shift when they have identified what it is.

Steve
 
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beenthere

Joined Apr 20, 2004
15,819
Don't forget that there is also a dark energy that has to exist to satisfy current theory about the universe. Mass and gravity (attraction of masses) are not well understood, but it seems a stretch to have both matter and energy present that interact with the rest of the universe, but are also not observable. That satisfies a definition of magic.

I kinda wonder if, like the luminiferous ether, somebody got the basic theory a bit wrong.
 

Thread Starter

Wendy

Joined Mar 24, 2008
23,415
Among the links posted was the concept of mirror matter (as opposed to antimatter). One of the symmetry concepts of physics. The thing is, mirror matter would have all the same characteristics as normal matter, but wouldn't interact with normal matter except through gravity, thus making it a good candidate for dark matter. All the particles, the theory states, have mirror equivalents, including photons, which could also explain some of the thoughts about hot dark matter and some of the other stuff.

Reminds me of a Sci Fi movie where a mirror earth orbited 180° from us in our solar system (not a stable configuration BTW). If this theory is true at all it will be strange, very much so. My second thought was about black holes, they don't care in the end, it's all food to them.
 

theamber

Joined Jun 13, 2008
325
Bill you may want to look at the theoretical objects called "white holes" that have even been proposed as possible "portholes" to other parts of the universe. However, these objects are not likely to be confirmed by observation. But we can still dream...
A more realistic phenomena, is the ripple produced in space-time by the rotation of binary systems and the subsequent release of gravitational waves.
You might want to read more about this at :
http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/features/topics/gwaves/gwaves.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitational_wave
 

Dave

Joined Nov 17, 2003
6,969
Bill you may want to look at the theoretical objects called "white holes" that have even been proposed as possible "portholes" to other parts of the universe. However, these objects are not likely to be confirmed by observation. But we can still dream...
Hawking did some interesting work on white holes in the 1970s. Worth a look if you get a chance. He did write an abridged treatise of them in his book "Black Holes and Baby Universes".

Dave
 

nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
13,087
Dark matter may be an illusion caused by the quantum vacuum

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-08-dark-illusion-quantum-vacuum.html

His ideas (like those in the previous paper) rest on the key hypothesis that matter and antimatter are gravitationally repulsive, which is due to the fact that particles and antiparticles have gravitational charge of opposite sign. (Though like matter, antimatter is gravitationally attractive with itself.) Currently, it is not known whether matter and antimatter are gravitationally repulsive, although a few experiments (most notably, the AEGIS experiment at CERN) are testing related concepts.
 

Thread Starter

Wendy

Joined Mar 24, 2008
23,415
Yeah, I read that story on physorg.com . It would be interesting if true.

Did you catch the story that a portion of the Van Allen belts were antiprotons, IE, antimatter?

Man this thread is old! I posted it about 5 months after I joined.
 

Thread Starter

Wendy

Joined Mar 24, 2008
23,415
That is very close to being answered, I think. Slowly they are accumulating more and more antimatter. I have a antimatter thread kicking around, they have very recently confirm symmetry in mass of the antiparticles, which was a major bit of science.
 

youngani

Joined Aug 23, 2011
1
I thought about that a lot and back at university I also wrote a thesis about black matter and its development respectively the constitution of its makeup but as I had to found out there are more than just a lot of theses on this topic and somehow no one seems to have an answer which made me think a lot more. I still do not feel that it is close to being answered fully because the more answers you get the more questions come up and I think we will not find a satisfying answer or explanation on the makeup of dark matter for the next ten to twenty years.
 

DerStrom8

Joined Feb 20, 2011
2,390
All I have seen regarding this subject is a sort of map, captured by one of our deep-space telescopes, and extrapolated through the use of computers. This map is shown here:

Other than that, I think it's still mainly a mystery that scientists are still trying to solve.
Thanks for posting this thread, by the way. It's very interesting, and I look forward to reading more replies! :D
Der Strom
 
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nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
13,087
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14680570

The theory, which was developed 20 years ago, can help to explain why there is more material in the Universe than we can detect - so-called "dark matter".
According to Professor Jordan Nash of Imperial College London, who is working on one of the LHC's experiments, researchers could have seen some evidence of supersymmetry by now.
"The fact that we haven't seen any evidence of it tells us that either our understanding of it is incomplete, or it's a little different to what we thought - or maybe it doesn't exist at all," he said.
The worry is that the basic idea of supersymmetry might be wrong.
"It's a beautiful idea. It explains dark matter, it explains the Higgs boson, it explains some aspects of cosmology; but that doesn't mean it's right.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9574000/9574080.stm

http://profmattstrassler.com/2011/0...nd-supersymmetry-is-supersymmetry-in-trouble/
 
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Jubus4

Joined Sep 13, 2011
1
According to the standard model of particle physics there are 12 fundamental particles. 6 Quarks, 6 Leptons, and 4 force carriers (with the hypothetical Higgs Boson as a 5th). In regards to Leptons there are the electron, muon, tau, and their respective neutrinos. Neutrinos are produced all the time in stars through fusion, they have very low mass and are nigh undetectable. The standard model predicts them to have no mass, but they do. There are so many of these particles and since they rarely interact with normal matter even with such a low mass they could account for dark matter.
 

nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
13,087
More Dark news about Dark Matter.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14948730

Research on dwarf galaxies suggests they cannot form in the way they do if dark matter exists in the form that the most common model requires it to.
That may mean that the Large Hadron Collider will not be able to spot it.
Leading cosmologist Carlos Frenk spoke of the "disturbing" developments at the British Science Festival in Bradford.
 

cmartinez

Joined Jan 17, 2007
8,220
I didn't want to open yet another new thread on such a broad subject. Anyway, the people interested in this subject are already participants and therefore will be duly alerted of this (pseudo-necro)post.

Here's a bit of news that I found astonishing:

https://cosmosmagazine.com/physics/galaxies-without-dark-matter-confirmed

Two new studies have confirmed a contentious claim made in 2018 that some galaxies are completely devoid of dark matter.
 
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