“Mechanisms” - Proposed Explanations
Unifying Dark Matter, Dark Energy and Gravity
A. Overview
Below are some explanations for the model that I hope the reader will find valuable. However, the Section 2 explanations are equally important.
This approach is not necessarily meant to negate others; it may be complementary to other approaches, such as Modified Newtonian Dynamics, “MOND.” It is successful if it applies to local phenomena, like the Earth, but does a better job modeling other phenomena, like the rotation curve in Milky Way Galaxy.
All but the first discussions, (“B.”) are positive explanations, but I start with two objections to the concept of “curved space,” which underly some of the standard answers to these questions.
B. Curved Space - Questions
1. If space is curved, it could always be argued that a force could produce the same results. As noted previously, one must account for a body moving from rest and necessitate arguments such as the “shortest path through space time.”
2. It is argued that time is a fourth dimension, and to describe an event, one must specify space and time. However, time is entirely different: it moves only in one direction and this movement is involuntary. And it is often necessary to describe phenomena in the world by many attributes. To describe an event, one must also specify who and what; in hiring decisions, it may take up to ten attributes to describe the person and his /her history.
C. An Outward Force from Space Itself
There is an outward force, similar to sound compression waves or outgoing circular waves, exerted by each unit of space or the components of space, such as fields or particles. Both string theory and loop quantum gravity hypothesize tiny elements of reality, which (I assume) mostly but not completely can penetrate large bodies. I will refer to these as “space dots” or “dots.” They produce the outgoing “t-waves” mentioned earlier in section 2A on “Gravity.”
And, of course, this outward force can originate from the Big Bang itself.
This approach easily explains gravity and the rotation curve. For planetary gravity, as illustrated in Section 2A on Planetary Gravity, the unbalanced force difference from the space dots is microscopic, since the mass of the Earth is estimated to be 6 × 10²⁴ kilograms, with many ordinary objects having a mass of less than 100 kilograms. It would not be noticeable if there were a heat effect, since the Earth is hot in the center anyway This approach can easily be extended to galaxy rotation curves for the Milky way and elsewhere, as well as gravitational time dilation.
It also provides a simple explanation of why the Earth doesn’t leave the Sun’s orbit, as discussed in Section 2, Part E. Relativity is not needed.
D. An Outward Force – Four Other Results.
1. The expansion of the universe, called dark energy, is simply a property of space itself.
2. Regions of space with few large bodies would expand, which has been called dark energy. Those regions with many bodies would mask this effect through blockage, producing gravity, as explained by Section 2A.
3. Black holes could not become infinitesimally small.
4. It is an ongoing issue in physics as to why every electron in the universe is identical. If there were outgoing waves, interacting electrons would exchange energy until they reached a stable uniform distribution. This process, related to “least energy,” is called “equilibration.”
E. Casimir Force
The Casimir force is an established part of physics: Plates that are close together feel an inward force. Although this is assumed to be very weak and unable to account for gravity, it should be noted that we only know that there is a difference between the inside versus the outside of the plates, not whether there is an underlying non-zero force in space itself. For all we know, the latter may have enormous strength, though slightly less than that between the plates.
F. Modified Newtonian Dynamics (“MOND”)
MOND is an alternative to the dark matter hypothesis proposed by physicist Mordehai Milgrom in 1983. It theorizes that Newton’s laws of gravity break down at extremely low accelerations, such as those experienced by stars on the outer edges of galaxies. MOND modifies the gravitational force law at these tiny acceleration scales to make gravity stronger. Accordingly, dark matter is not needed.
Although dark matter seems to have the edge in the work of cosmologists, MOND has other advantages. Recall the question that has been asked (paraphrased) “How much dark matter do you want and where do you want it?” This refers to the fact that dark matter’s location must be assumed to make the numbers come out right.
As far as the “’Bullet Cluster” proving dark matter is necessary, some skepticism has emerged that some of the invisible matter consist of neutron stars and black holes.
G. Loops, Fields and Strings
Loop Quantum Gravity (LQG) models space as discrete spin network units whose vibrations can produce gravitational effects, eliminating the need to postulate singularities for black holes and the Big Bang. Quantum field theory and string theory offer similar routes to quantum gravity, with string theory aiming to unify all four forces. However, string theory has the disadvantage of requiring many extra dimensions.
These three frameworks allow a loose analogy to the t-waves I discussed, which are conceptually similar to sound compression waves and outgoing scalar waves.