Dark Matter And Dark Energy May Not Exist.

[Dreaming Of Pandora]

A further development of my Big Bang Theory comes under fire and The Universe is older than we thought threads.

The Universe is full of surprises as a new proposal that the standard physics model of the Universe could be severely flawed which could result in the collapse or drastic alterations in scientific theories which have explained many of the cosmos' mysteries.

Scientists have claimed dark matter and energy – the mysterious substances thought to make up 96 per cent of the universe – may not exist, a report yesterday claimed.

The two mysterious materials are believed to power the expansion of the cosmos.

However, if the evidence proves correct, it means the theory used to calculate the structure of the universe may be wrong.

Planets, stars, asteroids and gas account for just four per cent of the cosmos, according to the Standard Model of Cosmology, which analyses the big bang theory.

Utane Sawangwit and Tom Shanks of Durham University believe that errors on the “gold standard” cosmic microwave background results from the WMAP satellite that includes dark matter, dark energy and the exponential expansion after the big bang known as inflation may be larger than previously supposed.

It is the pattern of ripples detected by microwave background telescopes such as WMAP that underpin the idea that the Universe is composed of 22% dark exotic particles and 74% dark energy with the remaining 4% being the atoms in the ordinary material that we see around us.

The study carried out by Durham University physicists raises the possibility that there may be no ‘dark side’ of the universe, which could mean the cosmos is not expanding as rapidly as believed.

Dr Robert Massey, of the Royal Astronomical Society, which published the findings, said: ‘This would challenge greatly our assumptions about the long-term future of the universe, because the assumption at the moment is that the universe is expanding and if it isn’t that would be a huge shock.’

Theorists believe that dark matter affects the movement of galaxies by interfering with gravity, however, dark energy is considered to be of more significance.

The invisible matter is thought to be behind the reason why the universe is expanding, pushing everything apart at high-speed.

Professor Tom Shanks, who produced the report with graduate student Utane Sawangwit, said: ‘If our results prove correct then it will become less likely that dark energy and exotic dark matter particles dominate the universe.

‘So the evidence that the universe has a dark side will weaken.’

Their study is based on new data from a Nasa satellite put into orbit in 2001 to monitor big bang heat radiation.

The odds are still that the standard model with its dark energy and dark matter will survive but there are certainly many theorists who might hope that it does not! The identification of dark matter with exotic particles as yet undetected in the laboratory and the introduction of dark vacuum energy in an amount that is minute compared to the total energy of the Universe at early-times leaves many cosmologists feeling unsure.

The dark energy problem is particularly severe – most theorists would prefer a zero cosmological constant because it might be hoped that it could be explained by some as yet unknown symmetry of nature. Indeed, if there had to be a cosmological constant then the string theorists of particle physics would actually prefer that it was negative which is the opposite to what is apparently observed in the supernova Hubble diagram. These problems frequently cause theorists to resort to the “anthropic principle” for an explanation.

The standard model also has astrophysical difficulties. For example, in galaxy formation theories, as much “feedback” energy is now being used in preventing stars from forming as in forming them under gravity, seemingly at odds with the simplest “bottom-up” picture of galaxy formation.

According to their critics, to explain away theses potentially undermining errors, standard model and WMAP supporters have invented "dark energy" and "great attractors" so as to explain why a created universe did not spread out uniformly at the same speed and in the same spoke-like directions as predicted by theory.

Predications based on the Big Bang can account for less than 20% of the mass and density of the known, observable Hubble length universe. Nor can this theory explain gravity, the discordant data on red shifts, galaxy distribution, colliding galaxies, the abundance of hydrogen and helium, the existence of elementary particles, and why the movement of distant galaxies appears to be accelerating.

Critics of the standard model say that only the addition of ad hoc hypothetical appendages and parameters which are constantly adjusted have prevented the Big Bang theory from complete collapse.

I've let out most of the technical jargon in the articles but basically, observations of the radiation left over from the Big Bang tend to match observations that take Dark Energy and Dark Matter into account, models that don't take Dark Energy and Matter into account don't show the correct amount of radiation left over by the Big Bang, they show less Cosmic Background Radiation but these physicists have shown that using point-like radiation sources and tiny alterations to the Laws of Gravity, that the Universe does not need to have Dark Energy and Dark Matter to form the way it has now.

Extracts of Daily Galaxy Blog and Daily Mail

[Na'vi_supporter]

Very interesting reading, this can change a lot.
And I am curious if LHC can add some clues or not. I heard that one of the experiments should be aimed to question of supersymmetry. But since March I have not noticed any early results of any experiments.

[rapunzel77]

Wow Dreaming, this is good information. I understand the need for the existence of dark energy/matter but if it can't be detected, there might be another explanation. Hopefully CERN will shed some light on this subject.

[Dreaming Of Pandora]

Originally Posted by Na'vi_supporter

Very interesting reading, this can change a lot.
And I am curious if LHC can add some clues or not. I heard that one of the experiments should be aimed to question of supersymmetry. But since March I have not noticed any early results of any experiments.

Yeah LHC has gone under maintenance, it should be already up and running. Hopefully they've already restarted experimenting.

Originally Posted by rapunzel77

Wow Dreaming, this is good information. I understand the need for the existence of dark energy/matter but if it can't be detected, there might be another explanation. Hopefully CERN will shed some light on this subject.

Hopefully, it's times like these when these particle accelerators do give us a handy clue or two into what's going on but maybe the effects of dark matter and energy are to minute to detect on a quantum scale.

[Sight Unseen]

Lambda is not zero!
Ok, now that that is out of the way...

Scientists don't know what the heck causes this "antigravity" effect that caused cosmic inflation. Dark Energy is basically a cool, mysterious label given to the category of "What the hell is causing that!?" They don't have a clue as to what it is. But, the effects are plain as day. SOMETHING is causing the universe to expand.

And I know that those cosmologists built themselves a proverbial "house of cards" out of overlapping theories that rationalize each other.

I, for one, an going to hold off on judgment until they have a theory as to what Dark Energy is. Then, we will see if that house of cards will still be standing.

Anyone got a guess as to what Dark Energy is?

[Dreaming Of Pandora]

Originally Posted by Sight Unseen

Lambda is not zero!
Ok, now that that is out of the way...

Scientists don't know what the heck causes this "antigravity" effect that caused cosmic inflation. Dark Energy is basically a cool, mysterious label given to the category of "What the hell is causing that!?" They don't have a clue as to what it is. But, the effects are plain as day. SOMETHING is causing the universe to expand.

And I know that those cosmologists built themselves a proverbial "house of cards" out of overlapping theories that rationalize each other.

I, for one, an going to hold off on judgment until they have a theory as to what Dark Energy is. Then, we will see if that house of cards will still be standing.

Anyone got a guess as to what Dark Energy is?

Yeah I was going to post an article about cosmologists admitting they haven't a clue about what's going on with the Universe.

Im guessing Dark Energy is what scientists call 'Negative Energy'. Matter, everything around us from our cups of coffee to galaxies are made of matter, but matter has an opposite component, anti-matter. I believe that if matter has an anti component, so does energy.

Negative Energy is really weird but it has been measured and observed on a quantum scale here on Earth so it isn't a theoretical force. As Gravity is a positive force which causes things to attract each other, like an object falling downwards to the Earth, Negative Energy causes things to repel each other and objects to fall upwards from the Earth, real freaky stuff. Im no cosmologist but that's my guess.

[txen]

You have got to understand what dark matter and dark energy are. They are place keepers. They are fudge factors added in to make the equations work. Ask a physicist and you will find a universal hatred of fudge factors. It really means we don't understand something. There is a great desire to replace the "darks" with something that makes more sense.

[Dreaming Of Pandora]

Originally Posted by txen

You have got to understand what dark matter and dark energy are. They are place keepers. They are fudge factors added in to make the equations work. Ask a physicist and you will find a universal hatred of fudge factors. It really means we don't understand something. There is a great desire to replace the "darks" with something that makes more sense.

True, Dark Matter and Dark Energy are merely names representing the effects these forces and matter have that we dont know about or else they wouldn't include the "dark" in the names. Nobody knows what these forces or matter compose of. So for as long as cosmologists cant figure what these components are, they'll be called Dark Matter and Energy.