Most popular theorized particle for explaining dark matter now eliminated
The uncertainty of science: The WIMP particle (Weakly Interacting Massive Particle), the most popular theorized particle to explain dark matter, has now been eliminated by experiments.
These experiments have now been ongoing for decades, and have seen no dark matter [WIMPs].
…Theorists can always tweak their models, and have done so many times, pushing the anticipated cross-section down and down as null result after null result rolls in. That’s the worst kind of science you can do, however: simply shifting the goalposts for no physical reason other than your experimental constraints have become more severe. There is no longer any motivation, other than preferring a conclusion that the data rules out, in doing.
Other theorized but less favored particles could still be proved to be dark matter, but the problem is getting harder and harder to solve, as presently assumed.
Dark matter has always been an invention created to explain the too-fast orbital velocities of stars in the other regions of galaxies. It could very well be however that the problem comes not from new physics and a newly contrived particle we can’t see, but from a deficiency in our overall observations of galaxies and what is there, within the constraints of the physics we know now.
Hat tip Mike Buford.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
The uncertainty of science: The WIMP particle (Weakly Interacting Massive Particle), the most popular theorized particle to explain dark matter, has now been eliminated by experiments.
These experiments have now been ongoing for decades, and have seen no dark matter [WIMPs].
…Theorists can always tweak their models, and have done so many times, pushing the anticipated cross-section down and down as null result after null result rolls in. That’s the worst kind of science you can do, however: simply shifting the goalposts for no physical reason other than your experimental constraints have become more severe. There is no longer any motivation, other than preferring a conclusion that the data rules out, in doing.
Other theorized but less favored particles could still be proved to be dark matter, but the problem is getting harder and harder to solve, as presently assumed.
Dark matter has always been an invention created to explain the too-fast orbital velocities of stars in the other regions of galaxies. It could very well be however that the problem comes not from new physics and a newly contrived particle we can’t see, but from a deficiency in our overall observations of galaxies and what is there, within the constraints of the physics we know now.
Hat tip Mike Buford.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
I have always been skeptical of dark matter and dark energy since their conception.
Both theories were originally intended as “placeholders” until a genuine explanation for the anomalies in the accepted theories we observe can be explained… Yet they have become cannon in cosmology….
The uncertainty of science is certainly the correct title for this subject…
At some point I suspect that the astrophysics community will simply have to acknowledge that gravity doesn’t actually behave quite like Newton said at extreme distances. I believe a few people have already proposed alternative gravity description maths – compatible with Relativity – that both account for the galactic spin “anomalies” and also very closely approximate Newton’s inverse-square law at shorter distances. Ala Sherlock Holmes, though, researchers haven’t quite eliminated all the remaining not-impossible hypotheses yet.
I’ve always thought this classic http://cafehayek.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/miracle_cartoon.jpg explains the obsession with ‘dark matter’.
If only more government money had been available to generate a gigantic Dark Matter research industry. Thousands of “scientists” would have been employed. The ‘Darkers’ should have taken advice from the climate change industry and figured out how to present their product as necessary for the survival of life on earth. School children could have been enlisted to lobby their parents. World organizations could have been enlisted to condemn dark matter deniers. Annual dark matter holidays could have been added to all calendars.
Missed opportunities.
brightdark–
I’ve actually been looking for that cartoon!
Jerry-
Sad, but frighteningly true!
Good stuff.
Lee–
yes, never was comfortable with the concepts.
Good stuff.
Dick–
Very good stuff. Succinct and reasonable.
I’m just an armchair cosmologist but I’m not at all convinced “everything” on “large enough scales,” is actually as homogeneous and isotropic as the math might demand, or at least we don’t yet have the correct conceptual framework.
Great Topic!
No need to deny dark matter, the science is settled and the consensus of scientists believe it to be true, so there you have it.
21st century science is awe inspiring. Issac and Albert would be mortified.
I remember my physics 8D teacher discussing relativistic physics. He often talked about how the concept of mass approaching infinity as it might approach the speed of light was a misunderstanding. It was, instead, it’s inertia.
Why do I bring this up? Inertia is ill understood, but Mike McCulloch http://physicsfromtheedge.blogspot.com has tied inertia into a concept that looks at it from a concept of horizon physics, and his theory seems to match what we see with galactic rotational speeds (as well as a few other issues).
Now, Mike has said that his physics also match the em-drive concept. I keep my mind open but skeptical on that. But he actually has some DARPA money to look at that. And considering that his physics do seem to match reality better then the dark matter concept in that youndont need to fit it, I wish him well.
Jwing–
Good stuff!
I’ve watched dozens of physics/cosmology lectures the past few years and there are a whole-lotta-people invested in Dark Matter, Inc.
pivoting–
Sir Roger Penrose:
New Cosmological View of Dark Matter, which Strangely and Slowly Decays
February 2018
https://youtu.be/xlSMME-Cl5g
1:15:02
“Is the Universe destined to collapse, ending in a big crunch or to expand indefinitely until it homogenizes in a heat death? Roger explains a third alternative, the cosmological conformal cyclic cosmology (CCC) scheme—where the Universe evolves through eons, each ending in the decay of mass and beginning again with new Big Bang. The equations governing the crossover from each aeon to the next demand the creation of a dominant new scalar material, postulated to be dark matter. In order that this material does not build up from aeon to aeon, it is taken to decay away completely over the history of each aeon. The dark matter particles (erebons) may be expected to behave almost as classical particles, though with bosonic properties; they would probably be of about a Planck mass, and interacting only gravitationally. Their decay would produce gravitational signals, and be responsible for the approximately scale invariant temperature fluctuations in the CMB of the succeeding aeon. In our own aeon, erebon decay might well show up in signals discernable by gravitational wave detectors.”
Brendan-
Interesting…
Sir Roger Penrose:
“Fashion, Faith, and Fantasy in the New Physics of the Universe”
January 2017
https://youtu.be/kS1A5dJdOvI
1:43:05
“What can fashionable ideas, blind faith, or pure fantasy possibly have to do with the scientific quest to understand the universe? Surely, theoretical physicists are immune to mere trends, dogmatic beliefs, or flights of fancy? In fact, acclaimed physicist and bestselling author Roger Penrose argues that researchers working at the extreme frontiers of physics are just as susceptible to these forces as anyone else.
In this provocative book, he argues that fashion, faith, and fantasy, while sometimes productive and even essential in physics, may be leading today’s researchers astray in three of the field’s most important areas—string theory, quantum mechanics, and cosmology.”
“Arguing that string theory has veered away from physical reality by positing six extra hidden dimensions, Penrose cautions that the fashionable nature of a theory can cloud our judgment of its plausibility. In the case of quantum mechanics, its stunning success in explaining the atomic universe has led to an uncritical faith that it must also apply to reasonably massive objects, and Penrose responds by suggesting possible changes in quantum theory. Turning to cosmology, he argues that most of the current fantastical ideas about the origins of the universe cannot be true, but that an even wilder reality may lie behind them. Finally, Penrose describes how fashion, faith, and fantasy have ironically also shaped his own work, from twistor theory, a possible alternative to string theory that is beginning to acquire a fashionable status, to “conformal cyclic cosmology,” an idea so fantastic that it could be called “conformal crazy cosmology.””
There is really an astonishing amount of fundamental knowledge we currently lack about the foundational nature of the universe. There’s just no way to even roughly estimate how long it will take us to figure this stuff out.
Too bad we can’t just have Doug Marcaida train up an elite team of blademasters and then go ask the Consu.
Sarcasm alert,
You heretics will be destroyed for your noncompliance and disbelief in the coming hurricane…
https://www-m.cnn.com/2018/11/19/opinions/dark-matter-hurricane-headed-our-way-lincoln-opinion/
We don’t know what dark matter is or what it will do… But we have to prepare for it now before it’s too late! If everyone does their part, and donates their fair share of everything they have, we might just overcome this crisis. The earth is in the balance, think of the children and all the starving politicians.
The science is settled, we can no longer tolerate anyone who puts our utopia way of life and control at risk.
Their websites will be banned, books will be burned, reeducation camps with punishment for noncompliance, perhaps even imprisonment. It is the progressive humane thing to do, as we work towards a perfect pre-industrial society.
Does this means that dark matter doesn’t matter?
Dark Matter vs Modified Gravity | Sean Carroll
November 2006/ Caltech
https://youtu.be/iu7LDGhSi1A
1:11:35
Nima Arkani Hamed –
“Unification and Fundamental Phyics: A Status Report”
9-21-2018
1:37:48
whoops–
link to above is here:
https://youtu.be/pXYvFMqwbhc
on an entirely different tact….
“The Morality of Fundamental Physics”
Nima Arkani-Hamed December 2018
https://youtu.be/FvCImlZIWUg
1:33:54
Surfer dude alternative to string theory
https://www.ted.com/talks/garrett_lisi_on_his_theory_of_everything
just for fun….
“Some Study That I Used to Know”
(Gotye Parody, College Humor 2012
https://youtu.be/VxkHM4DUDKM
3:45
back to work….
Thomas Kuhn (1962)
“The structure of scientific revolutions.”
(Commentary there upon: Leiden University October 2017)
https://youtu.be/Yn8cCDtVd5w
4:00
How quantised inertia gets rid of dark matter”
Mike McCulloch TEDx Plymouth University
march 2018
https://youtu.be/fnNKC82wUmY
14:57