Physics in the News – Dark Matter

From the BBC news item reference  :http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14811580

Short abstract

“Many candidates for what dark matter actually is have been proposed, but most explanations have been refuted by experiments.

What seems to align best with both theory and experiment so far is a class of particles that tend not to interact with the matter we know: weakly interacting massive particles, or Wimps.

Though dark matter is imagined to be everywhere, permeating the Universe and clumping around galaxies, it is estimated that some Wimps may pass through our entire Galaxy without interacting with any normal matter.

Dark materials

Cresst is just one laboratory dedicated to catching the flighty particles in deep underground detectors.

It uses 33 lumps of a crystal called calcium tungstate. When a Wimp smashes into an atomic nucleus within the crystals, the experiment is designed to see evidence both of a phonon and a photon – the sound and the light of the interaction.”

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[Note: A ‘Wimp’ in the English language is a derogatory name for people who are thought to be totally useless or feeble.]

Imagine a pinball machine complete with flashing lights, beeps etcetera. When you fire the steel ball up the channel the path of the ball becomes very erratic and can travel anywhere on the playing surface, triggering various lights and beeps. Sometimes it passes right through without hitting anything ‘important’ and you get no score. Sometimes it hits a pad that accelerates it off again in a different direction. Sometimes it hits springs that also changes the direction of the ball but without accelerating it.

Now consider the original game which only had the ball and steel pins. It also had an erratic path to travel and you can hear when the ball hits a pin. If all the pins were different sizes you would hear different notes when the ball hit them.

Now consider the experiment at Cresst. This is similar to a pinball machine,but unfortunately you cannot see the ball or the obstructions. Unfortunately you also don’t know what the ball actually is, because that is what the experiment is trying to determine. So they wait until an unknown object passes into a crystal containing millions of atoms. They occasionally see a flash and hear a noise. They don’t actually know that it ‘smashes into an atomic nucleus’.

They then claim that this might indicate that the unknown object is a ‘Wimp’.

Note that all the particles they are attempting to find (including the Wimp) are purely hypothetical (really we should say mythical).

“The Cresst team says that in their experiments between 2009 and 2011, they have seen 67 such events that cannot be explained by other means.”

This phrase “cannot be explained by other means is used all the time by physicists.

What they are really saying is that “As we (the most intelligent people in the universe) have arrived at this hypothesis, then no other explanation is possible”

Every subject on physics on my web site has had the original physics interpretation labelled ‘cannot be explained by other means.’

I have explained every one by ‘other means’.

In astronomy and cosmology, dark matter is matter that neither emits nor scatters light or other electromagnetic radiation, and so cannot be directly detected via optical or radio astronomy. Its existence is inferred from gravitational effects on visible matter and gravitational lensing of background radiation, and was originally hypothesized to account for discrepancies between calculations of the mass of galaxies, clusters of galaxies and the entire universe made through dynamical and general relativistic means, and calculations based on the mass of the visible “luminous” matter these objects contain: stars and the gas and dust of the interstellar and intergalactic medium. Many experiments to detect dark matter through non-gravitational means are underway.

According to observations of structures larger than solar systems, as well as Big Bang cosmology interpreted under the Friedmann equations and the FLRW metric, dark matter accounts for 23% of the mass-energy density of the observable universe. In comparison, ordinary matter accounts for only 4.6% of the mass-energy density of the observable universe, with the remainder being attributable to dark energy. From these figures, dark matter constitutes 83%, (23/(23+4.6)), of the matter in the universe, whereas ordinary matter makes up only 17%.

Dark matter was postulated by Fritz Zwicky in 1934 to account for evidence of “missing mass” in the orbital velocities of galaxies in clusters. Subsequently, other observations have indicated the presence of dark matter in the universe; these observations include the rotational speeds of galaxies, gravitational lensing of background objects by galaxy clusters such as the Bullet Cluster, and the temperature distribution of hot gas in galaxies and clusters of galaxies.

Dark matter plays a central role in state-of-the-art modelling of structure formation and galaxy evolution, and has measurable effects on the anisotropies observed in the cosmic microwave background. All these lines of evidence suggest that galaxies, clusters of galaxies, and the universe as a whole contain far more matter than that which interacts with electromagnetic radiation. The largest part of dark matter, which does not interact with electromagnetic radiation, is not only “dark” but also, by definition, utterly transparent.

As important as dark matter is believed to be in the cosmos, direct evidence of its existence and a concrete understanding of its nature have remained elusive.

Though the theory of dark matter remains the most widely accepted [amongst physicists] theory to explain the anomalies in observed galactic rotation, some alternative theoretical approaches have been developed which broadly fall into the categories of modified gravitational laws, and quantum gravitational laws.

There are no anomalies, its just that, not understanding mechanics, they are unable to logically apply the basic principles of mechanics to any observed phenomena.

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The existence of dark energy, in whatever form, is needed to reconcile the measured geometry of space with the total amount of matter in the universe. Measurements of cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies, most recently by the WMAP spacecraft, indicate that the universe is close to flat. For the shape of the universe to be flat, the mass/energy density of the universe must be equal to a certain critical density.

Really we are back to the mentality of the flat Earth hypothesis. There is no way that cosmic radiation of any type can prove that the universe is flat. The universe is universal, (that is why its called ‘the universe‘). Anything outside the physicists ‘flat’ universe is still part of the universe. If you travel in any direction from Earth you will come to the end of the physicists ‘universe’ or you won’t. If you do then what is beyond it? This stupidity lies behind the ridiculous ‘Bending Space’ arguments from the physicists, in which they argue, (without logic) that space is curved and therefore folds back on itself. They are just unable to accept the concept of a universe.

There is no ‘measured geometry of space’, it is impossible (even for engineers). Even using the accepted hypothesis that light has a constant speed, (which is incorrect) it is impossible to determine the distance of a moving object outside of our galaxy using optical methods. It is obvious that no other methods are available to us, therefore there is no method of doing it.

Dark Matter was a hypothesis 77 years ago. It still is, and will always be an hypothesis.

Consider this extract, proudly proclaiming the great strides in physics.

“Firstly, the abandonment of the ideal of a mechanical explanation of everything has eliminated a great deal of idle hypotheses. The properties of the fundamental entities of physics are now stated in the form of mathematical equations, instead of being ‘explained’ by a hypothetical mechanism.” From ” The Philosophy of Physical Science”, by Sir Arthur Eddington. This is the ‘Eddington’ usually quoted by physicists when they are asked awkward questions.

It is clear from the above passage that not only do physicists not understand mechanics, part of their catechism is that mechanics should actively be ignored in favour of mathematics.

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“As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.” Albert Einstein.

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“Scientists investigate that which already is; Engineers create that which has never been.” Albert Einstein.

Physicists do neither.

Einstein is treated as the ‘God’ of physicists, Eddington was always treated as the ‘High Priest’ of physicists.

Brian Williams

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