what if there's no dark matter/energy?

From: Damien Broderick (damienb@unimelb.edu.au)
Date: Thu Aug 28 2003 - 19:59:06 MDT

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    FWIW, here's a recent post to another list by Dr Evan Harris Walker, a
    quantum theorist with radical ideas:

    ==============================

    The recent visit to the tooth fairy to find quick fixes to recent
    difficulties with the proposed "inflation" modification of the well
    established Big Bang theory gave us dark matter. And now the latest trip to
    that tooth fairy to fix the fix gives us dark energy.

    Both dark matter and dark energy hypotheses arise as quick fixes to problems
    relating to the well established general relativity of the very early Big
    Bang universe. These data arise because of the application of one of our
    cornerstones, general relativity, to a particular problem under development
    that lies outside the domain of mesoscale physics. The properties of both
    dark matter and of dark energy are such that they do not play a role in
    mesoscale physics. The dark matter because it is believed by those who
    propose it that it was made during the first moments of the universe when
    the temperature of the universe was at energy levels some 13 orders of
    magnitude higher than anything achievable on earth today, and represents
    leftover non-interacting debris. Dark energy is believed to be an effect
    that has to do with the hypothetical cosmological constant that comes into
    play when very vast regions of space are involved, or when we are dealing
    with very vast amounts of matter, many galaxies at a time, or when doing
    things in the early morning of the universe. Though these are hypothetical,
    the physics constraints are still present. These hypothetical animals of
    cosmology are themselves as constrained as to what they can be allowed to do
    as is the physics of the matter in the brain.

    Translate any of these into their effects on the mesoscale, and they vanish.

    Neither dark matter or dark energy mitigate either general relativity or
    quantum mechanics to the slightest degree. The proposed particles lie
    outside the standard model, but they also lie outside the realm of the
    energy ranges achievable in any interactions on earth, even in billion
    dollar accelerators -- a limitation I expressed early on.

    Now, I have spent about 15 years studying the problems mentioned here, so my
    remarks are not off hand. Dark matter was proposed because inflation theory
    needed more matter than was seen. The universe seems rather flat, but
    flatness requires something like 10^-29 grams per cc (as I recall the
    number) matter density in the universe based on general relativity. There is
    observationally a 95% short-fall in this number (the exact number varies).
    Since that matter was not seen, it was hypothesized to exist anyway -- sort
    of the way invisable pink elephants are introduces, or that Harvey friend of
    Jimmy Stewart.

    I have proposed that the reason for this density short-fall results from the
    first generation of stars that formed when the universe first cooled to
    about 1000 degrees at 300,000 years of age. At that time, 1,000,000 solar
    mass stars began to form. The heat restricted what size stars could formed
    to this million solar mass size. The portion of matter forming these is
    calculable: 4%. Because of their mass, these stars burn and collapse very
    fast. Because the universe does not spin, these stars are different from
    most present stars and when they collapse because they immediately collapse
    into black holes; within a millisecond, they reach their endpoint.

    Now non-rotating black hole stars pose something of a problem in physics.
    The matter must go to a singularity -- infinitely small, infinite density,
    infinite temperature. As they collapse, they retrace the steps in the Big
    Bang.

    I made the proposal that as this happened, the "inflationary" episode of the
    Big Bang would be retraced inside that Black Hole mass, and that would mean
    that rather than matter coming out of the vacuum as happened during the Big
    Bang inflation, the matter would go back into the vacuum. This is based on
    somewhat generally accepted Big Bang inflation-era physics.

    If we suppose that to be the case, then the following happens:

    1. 1/3 the mass of each supermassive star, or about 1.3% of the mass of the
    universe would vanish (this is based on details as to how black hole
    collapse happen in supermassive stars. The collapsing "stream" breaks into
    segments).

    2. This would send out a gravitational pulse detectable in the Weber-style
    gravitational wave detectors at the rate of about 12/day seen by Weber (his
    observed rate was 17/day). But Weber had been discredited because he was
    seeing things that could not be there! Those of you who were at the Dallas
    (as I remember) Texas PA meeting may recall Feynman ridiculing Joe Weber,
    and may remember I stood up to take issue with him, both about Weber and
    about his trite remarks about parapsychology. "Professor Feynman, I know
    Professor Weber. I am sure if he were here, he would be able to adequately
    defend his work. I am sure that I speak for everyone in saying I am
    disappointed with your talk. I was hoping you would talk to us about
    something you have expertise in, namely theoretical physics. Many of the
    people here have more knowledge in experimental design than you have and
    probably know more than you about statistical procedures." At the time I had
    worked out some of the details having to do with this proposal I am
    discussing here.

    3. This would also result in the gamma ray bursters seen at the rate of
    1/day (the rate is calculable) with gamma rays at 300 Kev red-shifted down
    from their original neutron-mass energy of 300 Mev. (The red shift comes
    from the fact that they are at the edge of the expanding universe.) This
    1/day rate is lower than that of the gravitational pulses seen by Weber
    because the gammas can be absorbed and scattered in the dense environment of
    the early universe while gravitational effects are not. The difference given
    here is a calculated result.

    4. The loss of matter would mean that the density of the universe would go
    immediately from 100% of critical density for flatness to 98.7%.

    5. As time passed, this 1.3% short-fall in density at universe-age of
    300,000 to 1 million years would become a 95% absence of matter at present,
    about 13.8 billion years. Because astronomers cannot find the 100% matter
    for critical density needed for flatness, they have invented dark matter to
    make up for what is missing from their theory.

    6. As the density dropped further and further from criticality for flatness,
    the expansion would accelerate (as I said back in 1990), giving the
    impression of an accelerating force, or dark energy.

    7. When the 1.3% mass was lost, the rest of the 4% in these superstars, 2.7%
    of the mass of the universe, would be expelled in the resulting explosion as
    mass-loss resulted in the loss of gravitational confinement.

    8. This 2.7% would come out as neutron star matter and decay into the 2.7%
    of the now observed 3% heavy element content of the universe, the remaining
    0.3% being formed later by stragglers and more recent supernovas.

    9. The proposal removes the so-called "bounce problem" having to with
    understanding how supernovas work in detail. (It is presently proposed that
    this comes about from turbulence -- a catch-all.) Actually, the mass loss
    that happens at the end of the black hole formation when the mass vanished
    into the vacuum results in a loss of gravitational confinement in the
    supercompressed left-over neutron star.

    10. There happens to be a gap in the way super-massive stars behave when
    they collapse. This gap comes between 500,000 solar masses and 750,000 solar
    masses. The result is that the distribution of the gamma ray bursters would
    be bi-modal. This is an otherwise unexplained aspect of the observed data
    for gamma ray bursters.

    This is hardly exhaustive. I
    could go into further details of the Robertson-Walker-Friedmann model of
    general relativity and how that mathematics gives rise to these effects and
    the development of the universe, but more of that can be found and read at
    the website: http://users.cvom/wcri/wcri



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