Far out cosmology: Any explanation for dark matter? (Introduction)

by dhw, Wednesday, September 07, 2016, 13:04 (2787 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: We have agreed that the Higgs completed a segment of a pattern.
DAVID: No we haven't. What I have said is the Higgs finished an anticipated pattern. We have no idea what comes next, whether it is an extension of the pattern we see or a totally different pattern but related.-DAVID (under “a new dark matter boson”): This article makes my position about the Standard model quite clear. It is complete, a fully understood segment, but now theorists are guessing at new possibilities for dark matter, which must be another step in our understanding the makeup of the universe by its particles. (Dhw's bold)-If the Standard Model is a complete, fully understood segment (of what, if not of a pattern?), why do you tell me that we have not agreed that the Higgs completed a segment of a pattern?
 
dhw: However, it is clear that the next segment of the pattern entailed the prediction of WIMPS…
DAVID: No it didn't. The Higgs was anticipated! The Wimps are totally theoretical, not anticipated.-QUOTE: The latest, most sensitive searches for the particles thought to make up dark matter—the invisible stuff that may comprise 85 percent of the mass in the cosmos—have found nothing. Called WIMPs (weakly interacting massive particles), these subatomic shrinking violets may simply be better at hiding than physicists thought when they first predicted them more than 30 years ago. (My bold)-When is a prediction not a prediction? -dhw: If the Standard Model is our current means of making sense of the universe, it may be that the Standard Model is woefully amiss. 
DAVID: It is not woefully amiss. It is a perfect explanation of the particles we have found, no more.
 
QUOTE: "Physicists know that the standard model must break down somewhere. It doesn't explain why the universe contains more matter than antimatter, and it fails to pinpoint the origins of dark matter and dark energy, which make up 95 percent of the matter and energy in the cosmos.(David's bold)
"Even the crowning achievement of the LHC, the discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012 (SN: 7/28/2012, p. 5), hints at the sickness within the standard model[/b]. (David's bold)-David's comment: Note my bolded statements. The Standard Model is very consistent as far as it goes. It may not go further. We don't know what we don't know, and what is found in the future may not fit current predictions. -I have noted your bolded statements, which repeat other quotes saying that the SM may be defective, we agree that the SM is a completed segment, and we agree that we have no idea what pattern may emerge in the future when research delves into other segments of the pattern. Why all this vehement opposition to statements of mine which you then proceed to echo?-dhw: It may even be that the complete pattern of the universe is as changeable as that of the weather, with both predictable and unpredictable elements.
DAVID: YES! Remember the quote, 'who ordered that". Later the muons fit in.
-At last a yes!