Novel Dark Matter & Energy Hypothesis

[exchemist]

I thought this article in the Guardian was rather intriguing: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/mar/09/controversial-new-theory-of-gravity-rules-out-need-for-dark-matter

As I read this, the proposal is that fluctuations in spacetime itself (i.e. not vacuum fluctuations) could give rise to "extra" apparent gravitation which could dominate over conventional gravitation at long range, thereby accounting for the anomalous rotation rates of the edges of galaxies.

Link to abstract of the paper here: https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.19459

There was a previous piece on this a few months ago which I missed: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/mar/09/controversial-new-theory-of-gravity-rules-out-need-for-dark-matter

Abstract of the paper here: https://journals.aps.org/prx/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevX.13.041040

This comes from a group at University College London. They add the caveat that this hypothesis need further work  - and  some means of testing.

(I see Carlo Rovelli has taken a bet at 5000:1 that it goes nowhere, though!) 

 

[Genady]

It is curious that the same mechanism gives both the attractive effect of dark matter and the repulsive effect of dark energy.