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Missing Matter, Parallel Universes?
Phoghat writes "Could mirror universes or parallel worlds account for dark matter — the 'missing' matter in the Universe? In what seems to be mixing of science and science fiction, a new paper by a team of theoretical physicists hypothesizes the existence of mirror particles as a possible candidate for dark matter. An anomaly observed in the behavior of ordinary particles that appear to oscillate in and out of existence could be from a 'hypothetical parallel world consisting of mirror particles,' says a press release from Springer. 'Each neutron would have the ability to transition into its invisible mirror twin, and back, oscillating from one world to the other.'"
And in this parallel universe, everyone has a goatee.
...
Home of the Evil Spock.
Anomaly of ordinary particles? Hypothetical parallel world?... c'mon! ... everybody in here knows that our evil twins exist there and kill and sabotage each other with the one goal of becoming captain of a starship.
The only way to transcend between the worlds is a modified transporter beam.
Slashdotter = unimpressed by this
I think I have seen this movie...?
I guess I'm my own invisible mirror twin then?
I believe they're talking about mirror matter. It's still in this universe but doesn't really interact with anything else, kind of like, oh dark matter is suppose to. :) So rather than new particles, they're existing particles but with a reversed parity. I'm not really sure how this would account for how dark matter is distributed differently than normal matter since I would think it would pretty much clump together to form the exact same structures as normal matter would.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_matter
If the facts don't line up with your theory, a normal person would say the facts are wrong or the theory is wrong (measurements and models, in this case). But cosmologists just invent outlandish theories and particles that can't be proven or disproven.
It's not all bad -- incorrect measurements of Neptune's mass lead to the discovery of Pluto searching for the nonexistent Planet X. I think I'll go with the incorrect measurements, again.
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
The missing matter is all in the form of single unmatched socks.
... is the observations that dark matter not only doesn't interrupt with electronic matter (except gravitationally) but also doesn't interact with itself.
Lacking <sarcasm> tags,
Do they oscillate at 261Hz?
EVER.
If you are reading this post not in first place, it means it has oscillated into your universe.
The idea of Dark Matter seems a bit fantastic to explain the observation of suns in the outer rings of the galaxy moving at the speed they apparently do. Maybe some development of alternative methodolgies at determining speed of celestial bodies?
Just turn on the light!
I got to the chocolate box before you, that's why the hard ones have teeth marks.
Can someone with a good understanding of physics explain whether anti-matter could be a possible answer to this question?
Really all that matters to me is the direction that toilets drain in this parallel universe. I can only believe that the water spins the wrong way, but to observe it would be science!
I have a theory on parallel universes.
And that's that if you have to invent the notion of a parallel universe to explain your own theory, then I think that there's a pretty good chance that your theory is bupkis. It's time to start over, examine the evidence that you have, and come up with a new theory.
Because when you add parallel universes into the mix, literally anything becomes instantaneously possible, and inherently not falsifiable.
For example... I can postulate that there are many multicolored dinosaurs living in my apartment... just in another universe. An utterly unfalsifiable claim, and ridiculous to even begin to argue that it is possible to objectively and scientifically study
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Reminds me of the Genesis Machine http://www.amazon.com/The-Genesis-Machine-James-Hogan/dp/0743435974/ref=la_B000AQ4RKS_1_32?ie=UTF8&qid=1340144039&sr=1-32
IANAP, but "dark matter" as referred to is not baryonic matter, though a small percentage may be baryonic, most can't be, and interacts only gravitationally with our universe.
Plain old antimatter on the other hand is made up of antibaryons, and interacts electromagnetically, and rather energetically with regular matter in many cases.
You mostly have that backwards. "Normal people" invent outlandish untestable explanations -- often with reference to supernatural intelligences -- for unexplained phenomena all the time, whereas the "mirror particle" hypothesis makes quite specific, testable predictions (and specific tests are recommended in the paper.)
Dismissive assumptions are so much more scientific than actual testing.
My keys seem to be missing. I can't find them anywhere! Could they be in a parallel universe? They could, but it's far more likely I'm just too stupid to figure out where they are.
We read all this stuff trying to understand anything and all, and then the next paper they release will just say "Bazinga!"
Lemme guess, you have no substantial background in cosmology, physics or even mathematics? Clearly no one in the past 80 years has thought to double check their math and discover this error.
Time to start printing signs that read, "Planet Houston!"
Read the David Deutch books: "The Fabric of Reality" and/or "The Beginning of Infinity". Good "layman" descriptions of quantum theory and the possibility that we are indeed living in a multiverse where "our reality" intersects with many others . . .
Luckily we have more than one cosmologist, so it's not really a problem if some try new explanations (and maybe get to test them), because we have other cosmologists doing other things. Or are you going to suggest that there's only one cosmologist, going backwards and forwards through time and across the whole universe?
Well we can only afford one in this economy. Be thankful we have him.
How do we know that all galaxies are made of matter, and that the universe isn't littered with some galaxies made out of antimatter? How would we be able to tell if a galaxy was made of anti-matter due to a different rounding error than occurred in our neck of the woods?
Sure neutrons have an aggregate charge of zilch yet quarks that make up the thing don't. We've been able to see fractional effects caused by constituents of neutrons for a while now.
It would be really interesting to understand why being able to effect a neutrons properties with a magnetic field warrants such exotic explanations.
they mixed floating point and fixed point math sad really
---Saying gnome 3 is better than windows 8 not so much a compliment as it is damning with light praise.
sounds like a syfy channel moive of the week
Was just hoping that meant only just another spatial dimention or other relatively cheaper alternatives. But if we have to make guesses, lets think big from the start.
There were many scientists in earlier times when most people still believed in God, who did groundbreaking work in science and mathematics. There are names like Nicholas Copernicus, Sir Francis Bacon, Johannes Kepler, Galileo Galilei, René Descartes, Blaise Pascal, Isaac Newton, Robert Boyle, Michael Faraday, Gregory Mendel, William Thomson Kelvin, Max Planck and Albert Einstein. There are others that could be added to this list. It is quite clear from history, that belief in a Creator God does not preclude great scientific discovery and mathematics.
A sufficiently advanced simulation is indistinguishable from reality.
I like this because unlike most candidates for missing mass, it can be falsified. Congrats to Berezhiani and Nesti for having the balls to propose something that other scientists can measure! It should be feasible to distinguish neutrons that decay, neutrons that hypothetically oscillate into a non-interacting state and back, and those that simply escape the trap.
The Crosstime Engineers are strip mining this universe. It's close, from an energy consumption point of view and has no advanced civilization to get in the way. The testing phase is over and full scale exploitation will begin shortly.
If dark matter is actually some effect of the relationship between matter in another universe and this, how is it that the two are typically linked gravitationally, but not always. If you look at this photograph recently taken by the HST, one of the largest galaxy clusters we can see has its dark matter concentrated when the barionic matter is not. Puzzle me that? I'd have to have an explanation that would explain such anomalies.
Would not these parallel universes be somewhat coupled, then, because moving particle positions one place could affect the other place? And obviously position could transfer energy. Would a neutron within a black hole in one universe then be able to transfer energy into or out of the black hole by means of its parallel connection? But doesn't that violate some premises of black hole physics? And finally, would evil Kirk ever be able to overcome good Kirk and absorb his acting skills?
Did you think it was some other way?
See, Strangest Result of the year.
Baryonic matter ("normal" matter from our perspective) is the minority.
WE are the Goatse Universe.
NOOOOOOOoooo ... oh, wait, that's not what you said. Phew.
"What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
"A four-foot prune."
I have an alternative theory. How often do you see a story saying "astronomers find out ____ is actually much bigger/smaller than they thought" or "____ actually has more planets orbiting it than we thought." So they're supposed to be counting all mass in the universe AND they're using almost exclusively reflected radiation to do it?! Dark matter is a math error, if you can even call it that when the error itself is thinking you can even estimate something that complicated with our crappy technology. Creating all these theories about it are just idiotic. It's right up there with lightning....hmm, must = Zeus. Dark matter is 100% made up with almost no basis in reality.
Such a theoretical mass swap, particle replacement system would logically not result in more mass in our universe and less in another. It's a mirror, not a funhouse mirror.
Let's say they do oscillate at 10 times per second and both particles exist together at some point because of an unevenness. Then with 10 particles, 5 would be unbalanced one way and one towards the other universe, as it is a cycle.
So let's say it's a perfectly even system like two moons orbiting a planet. They're always offsetting the other so they're in perfectly even balance, which would not cause an inbalance of mass.
There's a really old theory that I like better. Instead of neutron swaps with a parallel universe, there's an antimatter/event horizon theory that says "virtual" exotic particles that are basically matter and antimatter pairs are being created together in empty space all the times. They have mass so they collide and destroy each other very quickly, creating a net mass of zero and positive energy. But in theory, it isn't a natural effect, it's mass derived from energy. I think the basis of the theory was some sort of small scale energy to mass conversion thing where light and heat and other energy transition into "fake" matter that does actually have mass then back into energy when they collide. So at the edge of a black hole, one particle could get sucked in while another escapes, creating dark matter. It was a stupid theory since there's a 50/50 chance that a + particle would get sucked in instead of a - one basically, causing no creation of antimatter along an event horizon.
Of course that explains dark matter but makes "dark energy" worse because some of the univers's energy would me MIA for a bit at all times.
I know we keep looking for smaller and smaller bits of an atom, but if the neutron exhibits this behavior then Gravity as a weak force could be explained. If all the neutrons in a object were phasing in and out of our universe then their gravity impact on the object would be limited to the total neutrons and the force they can exert on the object while they exist in our dimension. Other parts of atoms do have mass, but this is interesting.
[...] In what seems to be mixing of science and science fiction, a new paper by a team of theoretical physicists hypothesizes the existence of mirror particles as a possible candidate for dark matter. [...]
Would that mixing be 1% science, and maybe 99% science fiction?
Well lets create a device and go do some SLIDING
Each neutron would have the ability to transition into its invisible mirror twin, and back, oscillating from one world to the other.
Only my neutrons are transitioning between the worlds, the protons are just stuck in this universe!
...it's where my unpaired socks disappear.
just watch out for that Necromonger fleet
Maybe Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter knows something we don't know?
/ The Arrow
"How lovely you are. So lovely in my straightjacket..." - Nny
Basically, a material in one universe is stable, but when moved to another it is radioactive. Based on this, the two universes set up an "Electron Pump"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gods_Themselves
It was entertaining, the part involving the other universe was especially weird.
what if the universe is not expanding? what if light is really going red because of space? space might be shifting the color of the light over long distances. Hence it makes distance galaxies appear to be moving away faster than the speed of light. But if they were really moving away from us so fast why can we still see them? Also what if Dark Energy is just equally spread throughout the universe evenly. Perhaps this is the fabric on which space time exist. imagine and energy grid with straight lines, these lines are affected by matter. small enough particles zip through the mesh through paths of least resistance in a wave form. larger particles simple go in a straight line since the grid does not pose much resistance. Perhaps the world of the small is how everything should really work but when things get large the grid poses little to no resistance and things behave differently.
For a long period of time there was much speculation and controversy about where the so-called `missing matter' of the Universe had got to. All over the Galaxy the science depart-ments of all the major universities were acquiring more and more elaborate equipment to probe and search the hearts of distant galaxies, and then the very centre and the very edges of the whole Universe, but when eventually it was tracked down it turned out in fact to he all the stuff which the equipment had been packed in.
There was quite a large quantity of missing matter in the box, little soft round white pellets of missing matter, which Random discarded for future generations of physicists to track down and discover all over again once the findings of the current generation of physicists had been lost and forgotten about.
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
I'm sick of parallel Bender lauding his cowboy hat over me!
No one cares what your captcha was
Houston TX, USA
Care to cite a source to that effect?
You can read more at Starts With A Bang, but the bullet cluster galaxy collision is a good demonstration: the electronic matter of the two galaxies is slowed by the collision, and the dark matter of the two keeps on keeping on. If the dark matter could lose energy in a collision the two dark masses would not continue unaffected.
Lacking <sarcasm> tags,