My thoughts on dark matter

[Wso]

Before I begin I just want to say that I'm not sure this is in the right section, and I'm sorry if I posted this in the wrong place. What follows is just my own speculation, others may have thought of this before me, so I am not going to claim this is purely my idea.

 

Imagin two sheets of paper, parallel to one another. Each one representing a different universe, and each one floating in a perfect 0g environment. Suppose that we put some mass on the paper (assume the papers don't gravitationally attract to each other but that the mass on the papers can never fall off the paper). The mass on the paper would gravititationaly attract to itself, but the mass on the other paper would also move the mass on the paper closer to where it is. From an observer on one paper, mass would just be affected by gravity of masses that are not there. Now suppose those papers are three dimentional, and are floating in a (at least) four dimentional space. This sounds a lot like what's happening from effects we call "dark matter" doesn't it?

 

We know that dark matter can not be interacted with in any known way besides gravity. This fits the model described above. The mass from the other dimention could not interact in any way, but the gravitational effects could still affect one another so long as they both occupy some space with more then three dimensions. Again, this is just speculation, but the model sure seems to fit. I posted it hoping for other ideas on it, all criticism is welcomed, as is all ideas. Thank you in advance for posting your thoughts on the matter (no pun intended).

[Strange]

How would that explain the distribution of dark matter. For example, the fact that it is concentrated in and around galaxies?

[Wso]

How would that explain the distribution of dark matter. For example, the fact that it is concentrated in and around galaxies?

Perhapse in the other universe matter formed in a similar way. The effects of gravity would still be just as strong in the other universe, so matter would group into galaxies just like in ours. Also, keep in mind that our universe would be pulling on that universe just as they are pulling on theirs. The matter from the other universe would forum galaxies but would also gravitate towards where galaxies forumed in our universe. A simpler anoligy to picture is a glass wall, with tons of magnetic particles on both sides, (assuming the particles are stuck to their side of the glass) they would form clusters on their side but also would coincide with clusters on the other side, though some clusters may not line up perfectly.

[Janus]

Perhapse in the other universe matter formed in a similar way. The effects of gravity would still be just as strong in the other universe, so matter would group into galaxies just like in ours. Also, keep in mind that our universe would be pulling on that universe just as they are pulling on theirs. The matter from the other universe would forum galaxies but would also gravitate towards where galaxies forumed in our universe. A simpler anoligy to picture is a glass wall, with tons of magnetic particles on both sides, (assuming the particles are stuck to their side of the glass) they would form clusters on their side but also would coincide with clusters on the other side, though some clusters may not line up perfectly.

 

The problem with this that dark matter does not distribute itself in the same way as the visible matter in the galaxies do. A galaxy's dark matter halo is not concentrated in the disc of the galaxy, it is spread out into a sphere in which the galaxy sits. Dark matter just doesn't clump up as much as visible matter does. If DM was caused by matter clumping the way it does here but in a parallel universe, its gravitational silhouette should look like a galaxy and it doesn't.

 

It also cannot explain the Bullet cluster. This is where we have seen the after math of two colliding galaxy clusters, each with its own dark matter halo. What we see from this is that while the visible matter has been slowed down by the collision, not so the dark matter. (We can tell where the dark matter is by gravitational lensing). So what we see is the visible matter and then separated from a region where there is no visible matter but a gravitational effect.

 

If the dark matter gravity was due to some "mirror clusters" in another universe, those galaxy clusters would have colided in their universe and slowed down just like the galaxies in our universe did, and you wouldn't see the separation of DM and VM we see.

[Wso]

It seems to me that there are many possible explanations for dark matter, yet only one, if any, are correct. I realize that my idea (if it's even mine, someone else may have thought of it before me) may not be correct. It does, however, deserve my best efforts to attempt to prove it right. What other explanations are there for dark matter?

[Janus]

It seems to me that there are many possible explanations for dark matter, yet only one, if any, are correct. I realize that my idea (if it's even mine, someone else may have thought of it before me) may not be correct. It does, however, deserve my best efforts to attempt to prove it right. What other explanations are there for dark matter?

Oops, you got that backwards, the first thing you need to do with any new idea is first try as hard as you can to prove it wrong. And then, if you fail, ask others to do their best to do so. This is how you weed out the ideas that you need not waste any more time on.

[Alan McDougall]

Oops, you got that backwards, the first thing you need to do with any new idea is first try as hard as you can to prove it wrong. And then, if you fail, ask others to do their best to do so. This is how you weed out the ideas that you need not waste any more time on.

 

Has there been any thought that neutrino's might have something to do with dark matter or even be dark matter itself?

[imatfaal]

Has there been any thought that neutrino's might have something to do with dark matter or even be dark matter itself?

Sterile neutrinos are leading candidate for constituting the bulk of warm dark matter. And I am not joking with those adjectives. Sterile means it is of right handed chirality which means they do not participate in the weak interaction. And it is warm - as opposed to hot (ultrarelativistic speeds) or cold (very little speed). Frankly it all strikes me as needing Graham Chapman to interupt and say Too Silly!

 

: Now, I've noticed a tendency for this programme to get rather silly. Now I do my best to keep things moving along, but I'm not having things getting silly. Those two last sketches I did got very silly indeed, and that last one about the bed was even sillier

[Wso]

Oops, you got that backwards, the first thing you need to do with any new idea is first try as hard as you can to prove it wrong. And then, if you fail, ask others to do their best to do so. This is how you weed out the ideas that you need not waste any more time on.

Thank you for correcting me, I realize that my post didn't make much sense. What I meant was I would try to prove it right. The process of proving a theroy right, of corse, is basically try to prove it wrong and if that doesn't work, it might be correct.