[HN Gopher] Checking in on troubles with dark matter
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       Checking in on troubles with dark matter
        
       Author : xqcgrek2
       Score  : 27 points
       Date   : 2023-08-05 13:56 UTC (9 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (tritonstation.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (tritonstation.com)
        
       | magicalhippo wrote:
       | Was just watching an "intro" lecture[1] on DM over at PIRSA, as
       | part of TRISEP 2023[2], a summer school for grad students. There
       | he goes over some of the arguments for DM, but with more math and
       | details than the usual popsci stuff, but still at a fairly
       | accessible level.
       | 
       | I'm just a layman but to me the Bullet Cluster[3] seems very hard
       | to reconcile with just modified theories of gravity. On the other
       | hand it seems unreasonable to me that General Relativity doesn't
       | need corrections due to quantum mechanics, and as this article
       | mentions LCDM has a bunch of other issues.
       | 
       | So how about both? Some non-interacting "dark" particle(s) and
       | some quantum corrections to General Relativity. Anyone know about
       | work trying to combine the two approaches, and see how things
       | stack up?
       | 
       | [1]: https://pirsa.org/23060067
       | 
       | [2]: https://pirsa.org/C23020
       | 
       | [3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullet_Cluster
        
         | naasking wrote:
         | Milgrom's view on the bullet cluster:
         | 
         | http://astroweb.case.edu/ssm/mond/moti_bullet.html
         | 
         | LCDM also apparently fails to explain the velocity of the
         | bullet cluster, so it's not like it's slam dunk for DM
         | (collision velocity better matches MOND).
         | 
         | Some MOND proponents posit "sterile neutrinos" to complete the
         | theory in some cases, like the bullet cluster. And then there
         | are bullet cluster-like failures for LCDM that get papered
         | over:
         | 
         | https://tritonstation.com/2016/12/23/crater-2-the-bullet-clu...
         | 
         | There have also been recent measures that suggest that much
         | existing data is actually more consistent with warm regular
         | matter that has so far gone undetected rather than cold dark
         | matter.
         | 
         | The dark matter "consensus" is a flimsy facade covering a lot
         | of gaping holes. Something's gotta give.
        
         | sebzim4500 wrote:
         | It's a bit of a false dichotomy. Even the MOND people recognize
         | that you need dark matter (even if they don't use the term) to
         | explain the bullet cluster, so it isn't really dark matter vs
         | MOND.
         | 
         | It's "dark matter" vs "MOND + dark matter"
        
           | magicalhippo wrote:
           | I admit I haven't followed the field closely, but when
           | reading papers about MOND I've never gotten that impression.
           | 
           | Do you have some examples?
        
       | thriftwy wrote:
       | The observation that we seem to live in the emptiest region of
       | known space should cast doubt on our understanding of universe.
       | Are we watching through fish-eyed lens? Something kills life
       | after critical concentration? Funny third option?
        
       | SirIsaac wrote:
       | Sooner or later, the physics community will come to their senses
       | and realize that every massive particle is surrounded by its own
       | dark matter halo. This is the reason that measurements of the
       | gravitational constant G suffer from a high uncertainty problem
       | not seen with other physics measurements.
       | 
       | Then it will become obvious that the halo is a neutral electric
       | field created by real photons, not virtual photons.
       | 
       | Rebel Science
        
         | SubiculumCode wrote:
         | hello crankgpt!
        
       | tlogan wrote:
       | Can the Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) theory adequately
       | explain the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation and the
       | persistent mass discrepancies observed in galaxy clusters?
       | 
       | Furthermore, as a laiman, I'm puzzled by how certain versions of
       | MOND requires introduction of new fields. Doesn't this
       | effectively the same as saying there is some new particle we
       | neeed to discover?
        
         | aeneasmackenzie wrote:
         | There is a relativistic MOND theory that has predicted the CMB
         | spectrum[0]. And perhaps. MOND is first of all observational.
         | AeST is just the latest (and AFAIK best) attempt to create a
         | theory that reproduces the MOND acceleration artifact.
         | 
         | 0: https://tritonstation.com/2023/01/13/what-we-have-here-
         | is-a-...
        
         | idlewords wrote:
         | MOND is really a rule without a theory; it simply posits that
         | there is an acceleration cutoff below which gravity does not
         | obey an inverse square law. This conjecture has been shown to
         | have impressive predictive power, and it naturally explains a
         | bunch of observations that are not obviously related and
         | require fine-tuning in a dark matter paradigm. The blog linked
         | here goes into a lot of detail on those observations, as well
         | as observed phenomena that don't seem to fit well with MOND.
         | 
         | What the theory underlying MOND actually _is_ is anyone 's
         | guess, and an area of active conjecture. But that's just as
         | true for dark matter.
        
           | SirIsaac wrote:
           | Another equally plausible MOND model is one in which the
           | gravitational constant G increases with distance. This is
           | what is observed in the orbits of stars around the center of
           | a galaxy.
           | 
           | Of course, this is a pseudo-increase caused by, you guessed
           | it, dark matter.
        
         | ramraj07 wrote:
         | Are you still a layman if you're able to ask these questions
         | though?
        
           | jraines wrote:
           | If you got at least halfway in to Sean Carroll's recent 4
           | hour podcast on the subject -- yes ;)
        
       | OldGuyInTheClub wrote:
       | I wasn't aware of MOND's successes beyond rotation curves; the
       | author lists three more. It does seem like LDCM and MOND are both
       | feeling different parts of the same elephant and that someone
       | will eventually see the whole critter. This TritonStation fellow
       | is worth reading.
       | 
       | So many sophisticated experiments have failed to detect dark
       | matter particles. So many theories have predicted still
       | unobserved phenomena. On the other hand, many of us side-eyed
       | LIGO for decades but when it worked, it worked. Black holes were
       | unphysical and abominations until they weren't.
        
         | idlewords wrote:
         | That blog is worth a deep dive, it goes into deep and
         | fascinating detail about how this stuff is measured, as well as
         | the sociology of the field, which has continued to add
         | epicycles to dark matter theory to an extent that is starting
         | to make even true believers uncomfortable.
        
           | sebzim4500 wrote:
           | >which has continued to add epicycles to dark matter theory
           | to an extent that is starting to make even true believers
           | uncomfortable.
           | 
           | You certainly get this impression from pop-sci, but are there
           | prominent people in the field actually saying this? Obviously
           | sometimes the scientific consensus can be wrong (see the
           | planetary nebula 'debate' for example) but normally
           | contrarians turn out to be incorrect.
        
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