Well that’s a perfectly valid question, thank you for asking. I think the key word here is “direct”. He is totally right, there is no direct evidence of dark matter, regardless of what it exactly is. We have a bunch of observations that don’t match up with our expectations and models. Where the difference could be explained by adding non EM interacting matter, it’s categorized as being caused by dark matter.
Great examples for this are the rotation curves of galaxies and the Bullet cluster, but there are others. The interesting thing about the rotation curves is they are all different. Not only different from our expectations, but also different from each other. We can clearly see the rotations don’t match up, but we can’t see why this would be the case. Since they differ from each other, it seems like a physical thing which is different in each galaxy, rather the some fundamental systematic difference in reality from our models. With the Bullet cluster the same thing, looking at that thing it’s clear something really weird is going on. It’s hard to figure out what is happening, but it would be explained by some non EM interacting material, so it gets put down to dark matter.
But neither of these examples are direct observations of dark matter. Dark matter doesn’t interact with em, but does seem to interact gravitationally. Since almost all of our observations of the universe are using EM radiation. Be it optical, ir, radio, xray etc. Since dark matter doesn’t interact with EM seemingly in any way, we can’t observe it. We can only model it based on things we can see.
So in that way the author is kinda reasoning in circles, there is no direct evidence because by definition we can’t directly observe it. And I feel like inferring the existence of something based on other observations is perfectly valid. For example elements on the periodic table and the planet Neptune are well known examples (among many others) of something that fell out of models and were later confirmed. And since the observations don’t match up, we know for sure there is something there regardless of what label gets put on it. It even might turn out there are several things combined that have the end result we see, although Occam’s razor would have something to say about that.
There are several things we are trying to learn more about dark matter. For example giant gravitational wave detectors can help to figure some stuff out. But great progress is also made in WIMP detection systems. I feel both of these paths would qualify as “direct” detection, if any of these pan out.
I agree with the other commenter, this is a great answer.
As far as I know, all so far proposed models that eliminate dark matter have other problems that are greater than"just" adding invisible mass. Would be cool though to just activate gravity without the need for mass.
Well that’s a perfectly valid question, thank you for asking. I think the key word here is “direct”. He is totally right, there is no direct evidence of dark matter, regardless of what it exactly is. We have a bunch of observations that don’t match up with our expectations and models. Where the difference could be explained by adding non EM interacting matter, it’s categorized as being caused by dark matter.
Great examples for this are the rotation curves of galaxies and the Bullet cluster, but there are others. The interesting thing about the rotation curves is they are all different. Not only different from our expectations, but also different from each other. We can clearly see the rotations don’t match up, but we can’t see why this would be the case. Since they differ from each other, it seems like a physical thing which is different in each galaxy, rather the some fundamental systematic difference in reality from our models. With the Bullet cluster the same thing, looking at that thing it’s clear something really weird is going on. It’s hard to figure out what is happening, but it would be explained by some non EM interacting material, so it gets put down to dark matter.
But neither of these examples are direct observations of dark matter. Dark matter doesn’t interact with em, but does seem to interact gravitationally. Since almost all of our observations of the universe are using EM radiation. Be it optical, ir, radio, xray etc. Since dark matter doesn’t interact with EM seemingly in any way, we can’t observe it. We can only model it based on things we can see.
So in that way the author is kinda reasoning in circles, there is no direct evidence because by definition we can’t directly observe it. And I feel like inferring the existence of something based on other observations is perfectly valid. For example elements on the periodic table and the planet Neptune are well known examples (among many others) of something that fell out of models and were later confirmed. And since the observations don’t match up, we know for sure there is something there regardless of what label gets put on it. It even might turn out there are several things combined that have the end result we see, although Occam’s razor would have something to say about that.
There are several things we are trying to learn more about dark matter. For example giant gravitational wave detectors can help to figure some stuff out. But great progress is also made in WIMP detection systems. I feel both of these paths would qualify as “direct” detection, if any of these pan out.
Great answer, thanks!
I agree with the other commenter, this is a great answer.
As far as I know, all so far proposed models that eliminate dark matter have other problems that are greater than"just" adding invisible mass. Would be cool though to just activate gravity without the need for mass.