More Matt Strassler: LHC hunts dark matter (Introduction)

by David Turell , Wednesday, April 15, 2015, 15:09 (3510 days ago) @ David Turell

How the LHC might have a hint in finding it. Consensus science. Some hedges in the article, second ion a series of three:-http://profmattstrassler.com/2015/04/15/more-on-dark-matter-and-the-large-hadron-collider/-"Now if you'd like to drop the dark matter idea, the question you have to ask is this: could the simulations still give a universe similar to ours if you took dark matter out and instead modified Einstein's gravity somehow? [Usually this type of change goes under the name of MOND.]-"In the simulation, gravity causes the dark matter, which is “cold” (cosmo-speak for “made from objects traveling much slower than light speed”), to form filamentary structures that then serve as the seeds for gas to clump and form galaxies. So if you want to take the dark matter out, and instead change gravity to explain other features that are normally explained by dark matter, you have a challenge. You are in danger of not creating the filamentary structure seen in our universe. Somehow your change in the equations for gravity has to cause the gas to form galaxies along filaments, and do so in the time allotted. Otherwise it won't lead to the type of universe that we actually live in.-"Challenging, yes. Challenging is not the same as impossible. But everyone one should understand that the arguments in favor of dark matter are by no means limited to the questions of how stars move in galaxies and how galaxies move in galaxy clusters. Any implementation of MOND has to explain a lot of other things that, in most experts' eyes, are efficiently taken care of by cold dark matter."