Dark Matter and Dark Energy, in my opinion this is the most
interesting topic in physics today. So, what do we know about Dark Matter and
Dark Energy, in a word NOTHING! Well, it is not completely nothing, but it is
close.
The first and maybe most important point that must be made
is that there is no information, facts or data that Dark Matter and Dark Energy
are related. In other words, if physics actually discovers what one of them is,
there is nothing to say that it will lead to the understanding of the other. I
personally like to believe that the lack of understanding and knowledge
regarding Dark Matter and Dark Energy does relate them to a new and bold
concept in physics, but there are no facts or data that support my belief.
However, there is the basic concept in physics of symmetry that Dark Matter and
Dark Energy do correspond with.
The basic concept of symmetry is if there is an up there is
a down, a particle has an anti-particle, for negative charges (electron) there
is a positive charge (proton). In essence, symmetry keeps things neutral, or
even, within our universe. Dark Matter was discovered and/or theorized because
there was not enough gravity associated with the visible matter in the universe
to pull things together and give us the universe we have. There has to be
something else out there that has gravity, or acts like gravity, pulling things
together so that what we see and know about the universe works the way we see
it. Dark Energy on the other hand is pushing the universe apart; it is causing
the universe to expand. This in essence means that the galaxies in the universe
are moving further away from each other. There are some exceptions to this. So
what we are ending up with is Dark Matter pulls things toward each other while
Dark Energy pushes things apart. This is Symmetry.
Before going further it is important to cover some estimated
(known) data. The current, generally accepted data necessary to explain the
current “Big Bang” theory of cosmology is that the universe is made up of about
5% visible matter, about 27% Dark Matter and about 68% Dark Energy. That 5% of
visible matter is every star in every galaxy along with every other kind of
mass in the universe including every atom and particle existing everywhere
within the universe. That is a whole lot of stuff representing a very small
percentage of our known universe.
So, what are some of the theories for Dark Matter and Dark
Energy? Start with the easiest one, Dark Energy. In a nutshell nobody has a
clue what this is or could be. As stated above it is estimated to be the
largest part of our universe and nothing is known about it or really theorized
about it. All that can be said at this point in time is that it is there. As
for Dark Matter, the most common theory is some new and exotic particle
including but not limited to Axions and WIMPs, Weakly Interaction Massive
Particles, which could include the Neutralinos and Photinos.
Without going into any details, new particles as discussed
above would have to be consistent with what is known as the Standard Model.
This is in essence the quantum mechanics based model of 17 basic particles that
are responsible for all of the matter in the universe. As for the Standard
Model, it has its own significant issues and will have its own paper in this
blog. However, moving forward and building on the particle concept, the
Neutralinos and Photinos would be part of what is known as Super Symmetry (SUSY)
which is considered by many scientists to the biggest and most necessary part
of String Theory and would add 12 new particles to the standard model. In
short, none of these new SUSY particles have been discovered even though they
were expected to be discovered by now.
Regarding the Neutralinos and Photinos from the SUSY
particles, they are theorized to be massive particles that are anywhere from 10
to 100 times more massive than their average cousins the Neutrino and Photon.
Despite their huge size they don’t interact with normal matter. And even though
Neutrinos and Photons have been discovered, their massive beast cousins have
yet to be found even though they are being looked for. Let’s say this another
way, the biggest elementary particles out there cannot be found. What is so
special about these massive particles that allow them to hide so well and how
come other particles that have been theorized don’t hide like this?
Next in-line is the Axion particle. The Axion is theorized
to be a million times smaller than an electron. The Axion also has another
primary theoretical purpose. Recall above the point about symmetry being a
basic concept, well it turns out that there is a symmetry problem associated
with the standard model and the Axion is a particle theorized to solve this
problem also. Like the Neutralino and Photino, the Axion is also theorized to
be very weakly interacting with all other matter in the universe. The Axion is
actively being searched for and it too has not yet been found.
The fact that none of these particles, or any other possible
particles to explain Dark Matter, have not been found is not the biggest
problem. Recall from above that the visible matter in the universe is about 5%
of the total matter and Dark Matter is about 27%. In other words, Dark Matter
is about 5.5 times more abundant in the universe than physical matter. This
means that any of these theoretical particles that might account from dark
matter has to be 5.5 times more abundant than all of the matter we currently
have and see out there in our universe. This means that the Big Bang not only
had to account for all of the matter we see in the universe, it also has to
account for 5.5 times more mass in a single particle. There is absolutely
nothing symmetrical about this, and it just simply does not make sense.
There are a couple of other theories being talked about to account
for Dark Matter. One of them is MOND, Modified Newtonian Dynamics. Basically
this theory is that gravity as we know it and described by Isaac Newton is
variable. In other words, depending on the circumstances gravity can vary in
the universe and this variance depending on circumstances accounts for the
universe we see today. MOND is an interesting theory and is considered a serious
area of research by some. The biggest problem of MOND that is being worked on
is that it does not fit well with Space-Time in Einstein’s relativity theory.
One other theory that pops up but does not have much if any
following is Negative Mass Matter. The easiest way to think of Negative Mass
Matter is that it is basically anti-gravity. Rather than pulling things
together, it pushes them apart. There is not a lot that can be said about this
theory because of its limited following and how do you really go about
describing Negative Mass Matter? Not saying that this theory is invalid, it has
some fascinating applications. However, until there is a better understanding
of how it exists it is going to stay in the not a large following category.
I generally try to stay away from my beliefs on things that
I write about, but this topic is an exception for me. In 1921 Theodor Kaluza
came up with a 5-D theory that had a basis in Riemannian Geometry. 5-D is one
time dimension and 4 space dimensions instead of the 3 space dimensions we
currently live in. However, Kaluza’s theory did not go over well with the
growing field of quantum mechanics so it was not taken seriously by the
physicist/scientists of the time. I believe that Kaluza’s 5-D theory could very
well be true and that Dark Matter and Dark Energy are overlaps of the extra
larger fourth dimension onto our 3-D Universe. Hey, it is no worse of a theory
than Negative Mass Matter.
