----------------------- # 1576 - What does it matter, It’s Dark
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- Our world is made of atoms. It is “all” that we know. It is everything that is matter. It is the chemistry and its 118 elements, it is biology, it is all material, it is the Cosmos. We have the idea that the particles in matter and the 4 forces in nature are our whole Universe. If we understand atoms and we understand Gravity, Electromagnetism, and the 2 nuclear forces, we understand the Universe.
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- That’s it. We even know that the atoms and forces can be defined in a Standard Model of Particles. 12 matter particles and 4 force carrier particles. Add the Higgs Boson and you get to 17 particles which are just subsets that make up the Universe in the above paragraph.
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- The problem arises in the math. All this matter does not add up for a Universe that we can observe. For the last 80 years some astronomers among us have concluded that we were missing matter. We still have not found it, but, we have accumulated a lot of evidence that the 80 year old idea was correct.
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- In 1933 astronomers studying the Coma Cluster of galaxies measured their motion, their orbiting velocities around a center of gravity. These clusters should be rotating bodies no different that the planets orbiting the Sun. The math is the same. The force of gravity is well known. We have an equation for that:
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-------------------------- F = G * M * m / r^2
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- The force of gravity is directly proportional to the product of the masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.
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- The centripetal force of angular momentum of orbiting bodies is also well known.
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------------------------- Force = mass * acceleration
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------------------------ Force = mass * (velocity)^2 / radius
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----------------------- F = m * v^2 / r
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- This is the force accelerating objects moving in a uniform circular path or orbit. These two forces should be in balance if a system is in stable orbits.
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- The problem discovered in 1933 was that these forces in the Coma cluster of galaxies did not balance. The math definitely concluded that the galaxies should be flying apart. They are not in stable orbits. There was not near enough mass for gravity to hold them together. There must be a huge amount of mass there that we can not see, Dark Matter.
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- In 1970, there was no other explanation for 67 years. Then astronomers measuring the rotation rates of stars inside individual galaxies came to the same conclusion.
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- For example, our star, our Sun, is orbiting the center of the Milky Way Galaxy at 504,000 miles per hour. It is at a radius of 27,400 light years from the center of the galaxy. A radius of 161,112,000 billion miles. If the math is the same for our stable Solar System, the whole system should be flying out of the galaxy. What is holding us together? Dark Matter.
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- There is 5 times as much mass as we can count otherwise the outer stars in the galaxy would be leaving the galaxy and flying off into space. 5/6th of all the matter needed to hold it together must be Dark Matter.
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- Maybe there are a huge number of stars that we can not see? Let’s add all the possible White Dwarf stars that are too small to see, the Neutron Stars, the planets, the Brown Dwarf stars, and even all the Blackholes. It is still not near enough mass. There still has to be more Dark Matter in a giant halo around our Milky Way Galaxy and around every Galaxy in the Cosmos.
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- Or, could the equations for gravity and angular momentum be wrong? Does the gravitational constant change with size, space , or time? Or, is it constant everywhere?
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- 1980, another discovery was made with the more evidence that the equations are correct and we are missing Dark Matter and Dark Energy that composes 95% of the Universe created in the Big Bang.
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- The Cosmic Microwave Background radiation that was released 370,000 years after the Big Bang has sound waves imprinted in it. Pressure waves that were responsible for bringing matter together allowing gravity to create the stars and galaxies. The fundamental frequency of the pressure wave and the harmonics in the amplitude of the radiation wave allowed the composition of the Universe to be calculated. The nearly uniform 2.725 degrees Kelvin temperature today contained 1/100,000th degree variations that could be defined into these pressure wavelengths.
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- The composition of the Universe needed to create these oscillations had to be 27 % matter pulling it together and 73% energy pushing it apart. Of the 27% matter only 4% was ordinary matter that we can see. 23% was Dark Matter and 73% was Dark Energy. Our world of atoms and forces was only 4% of the whole Universe.
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- 96% of the Universe is something else. Something that is yet to be discovered. What is it? We have discovered 17 fundamental particles that are the composition of our 4% world. Maybe, there are more fundamental particles that we have yet to find. It was not until October 2012 that the Higgs Boson was finally discovered.
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- The Higgs Boson was in the math of the Standard Model of Particles but it took the Large Hadron Collider at CERN to come up with enough energy to create the Higgs Boson. The particle is the Higgs Boson. The energy is in the Higgs Field. The Field permeates all of space and interacts with the other particles to give them mass. This is analogous to a charged electron interacting with a magnetic field creating the force of acceleration on the electron.
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- There could be an undiscovered particle that creates the Dark Matter mass. We call it a WIMP, a Weakly Interactive Massive Particle. WIMPS interact with Gravity but they do not interact with the Electromagnetic Force. Light does not see them.
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- Astronomers have even been able to map Dark Matter around a cluster of a galaxies. By measuring how background galaxies are gravitationally lensed by the mass in a foreground cluster of galaxies the distribution of Dark Matter can be calculated even though it can not be seen. We can make a 3D picture of it.
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- How can we discover a WIMP particle?
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- WIMPS travel through the Earth without being deflected or absorbed. Well, almost entirely. Maybe we can detect a chance encounter of a WIMP colliding with an atomic nucleus. However, the detectors that would indicate this would also be detecting Cosmic Rays. Cosmic Rays are charged protons and nuclei entering the atmosphere from outer space. Therefore, the WIMP detectors must be placed deep underground to avoid Cosmic Rays.
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- WIMP detectors are doubling in sensitivity every 15 months as the technology keeps improving. Astronomers are hoping a discovery is made shortly, stay tuned.
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- The CERN LHC particle accelerator is reaching energy levels where proton - proton collisions might release enough energy to create a WIMP. We do not know the mass or the energy of the WIMP but the hunt is on. To illustrate using E = mc^2, to create an electron requires energy ( temperature ) 1,000 times hotter than the core of the Sun.
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- On the theoretical side of physics we have created the math to explain WIMPS. They even have a name, the “ Neutralino”. The math is called “ Super symmetry”. It creates 17 new particles that are heavier counter-parts to the 17 fundamental particles in the Standard Model. These “super particles” also have names:
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------------------- Quarks have a counterpart called Squarks.
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------------------ Photons have a counter part called Photinos.
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- The math looks promising because it also calculates why the Weak Nuclear Force is 10^32 times stronger then the Gravity Force.
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- “String Theory” is the new math that supports Super symmetry defining each of the 34 particles as strings of energy rather than being “ point particles”.
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- We need a breakthrough in physics to explain Dark Matter. WIMPs should be colliding with us all the time at 536,880 miles per hour. That is how fast the Sun is going through the Galaxy. There have been unexplained WIMP detections that change with the seasons. Change with the Earth’s rotation around the Sun. Going with the wind of WIMPs or against the galactic wind of WIMPS. Dark Matter will soon be discovered. An announcement will be made shortly, stay tuned.
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RSVP, please reply with a number to rate this review: #1- learned something new. #2 - Didn’t read it. #3- very interesting. #4- Send another review #___ from the index. #5- Keep em coming. #6- I forwarded copies to some friends. #7- Don‘t send me these anymore! #8- I am forwarding you some questions? Index is available with email upon request. Some reviews are at http://jdetrick.blogspot.com Please send feedback, corrections, or recommended improvements to: jamesdetrick@comcast.net. ---- “Jim Detrick” -- www.facebook.com, -- www.twitter.com, -- 707-536-3272 Thursday, March 14, 2013
