Expansion of Universe

Alternate Observation of the Expansion of the Universe, as it relates to Dark Energy vrs Dark Matter.
Dateline, Portland, May 2021
Conjecture: Dark Matter and Dark Energy are the same thing.
Note: This is an updated version of a story originally posted March 2019.

Astronomers first noticed problems with the motion of galaxies more than fifty years ago. As far back as the 1930's Fritz Zwicky noticed that galaxies in the Coma cluster were moving much too fast compared to the mass of the cluster. He calculated that 90% of the mass must be invisible. Since then astronomers have found the same problem with other galaxies and clusters.

Not only are the stars in every known galaxy moving too fast, but the outer stars of these galaxies are moving just as fast as the inner stars, in defience of the laws of physics. In this case, the gravity isn't just stronger than the visible mass, but the invisible mass appears to be mostly in a halo outside of the galaxy. To account for this missing mass, astronomers infused space with Dark Matter, invisible matter that we can't see or feel.

Then more recently a second bigger problem came to light. In the 1930's Edwin Hubble determined that galaxies throughout the universe are moving away from each other, which means the universe is expanding. But then in the 1990's astronomers noticed that galaxies that are very far away (the distant past) are expanding too slowly. This means galaxies that are closer (the recent past) are moving too fast. As gravity pulls all matter in the universe together, the expansion should be slowing down, but these findings seem to show it is speeding up.

To account for this speed up, astronomers also infused space with Dark Energy, a repulsive energy coming from some other kind of invisible matter. So the whole idea goes like this: dark matter surrounds galaxies and holds together galaxies and clusters. Dark energy is everywhere, but it primarily drives apart the voids between clusters but not the galaxies in the clusters.

There are several problems with these theories:
* Trying to conjur up two new types of matter that have never been seen before is difficult to sell if you ask me.
* So far no one has been able to identify any plausible dark matter or dark energy.
* Dark matter and dark energy fight each other - it takes additional amounts of each to neutralize the effects of the other.
* There is no known mechanism that can cause a galaxy to form a spiral and dark matter to form a halo.
* Any arrangement of dark matter that could cause the observed effects would be gravitationally unstable.
* The geometry of galaxy clusters doesn't support either theory.

I'm mighty skeptical of these dark products, not because of the problems above but because there are simpler explanations. I've had this idea that dark matter doesn't exist but rather dark energy works in a way that causes the effects of both.

Then in 2018 I found the smoking gun in Sky and Telescope magazine. The story had diagrams of galaxy clusters versus the gigantic voids between the clusters, and the geometry can't be explained by standard dark matter & energy.

On the border between a galaxy cluster and the neighboring void, the clusters tend to be concave, while the voids are convex. It appears the void is pushing into the cluster. In addition, there is frequently a flat wall of galaxies stretching between clusters. This wall is distinctly being squished between two voids.

Gravity alone would pull a cluster into an ameoba shape. It would be very difficult for gravity within a cluster to leave behind jagged edges and create large flat walls.

However, those shapes are easily created by a repulsive force in the voids between the galaxies. This outside force will press into the sides of the clusters and flatten any protrusions into a thin wall. For this to work the repulsive force will need a way to concentrate its self into the voids.

A repulsive force like this wouldn't need just negative gravity but also negative mass. Dark energy is presumed to have negative gravity, which will repel everything including other dark particles. Where as, a particle with negative mass will repel normal matter but will attract to other negative mass particles. Note that this description is slighty different from how physicists usually describe negative mass.

It would work like this: The normal particles that make up our galaxy have positive mass and will attract to other positive mass. This causes them to coalesce into the visible planets, stars, galaxies and clusters. Meanwhile, particles with negative mass will repel themselves out of the galaxy, where they will begin to coalesce in the small voids. Then once segrated, the negative matter will attract other negative matter and further coalesce into the giant void. And then the repulsive gravity of these voids will mold the galaxy clusters into the shapes that we see today.

Therefore, the interaction between positive and negative matter would work together to form the cluster/void shapes and behaviors:
* Negative mass would accumulate in the voids between clusters, causing the expansion of the universe to speed up.
* Pressure from the voids would cause galaxy clusters to form concave sides and flat wall edges.
* The voids would squeeze galaxies, causing them to rotate too fast.

* The Culprit: *

If the above actually works, then the obvious question is: what kind of matter has negative mass? One simple possibility is antimatter. Back in the 1950's Wheeler, Feynman, and Stueckelberg proposed that antimatter behaves as if it lives in negative time. This conjecture is just a mathematic simplification, but if accurate the particles would behave exactly as described above. Antiparticles would appear to repel regular matter and attract to other antiparticles.

There are several particle theories that give antimatter similar properties. None of these are mainstream, but there may be a ring of truth to some of them.

Antimatter is a prime suspect for two additional reasons: First, cosmology and quantum theory expect large quantities of antimatter to be left over from the big bang, but no one has been able to find it. But if the story above is accurate, then large quantities would be sitting in the galactic voids right now. And it could be sitting there in plain sight, telescopes can't tell the difference between antimatter and regular matter.

Second, galactic jets spew huge quantites of matter into intergalactic space, and this is assumed to include a lot of antimatter. This antimatter would then coalesce into the voids between galaxies, causing the voids to grow and eventually causing the expansion of the universe to speed up.

This whole story sounds far fetched, but it neatly explains a whole list of cosmological problems:
* Galaxies appear to spin too fast on their outer edges.
* Galaxy clusters appear to rotate too fast.
* The concave shape of galaxy clusters must be caused by outside pressure.
* The walls between clusters are arranged in ribbons rather than tubes.
* While clusters expand away from each other, the galaxies in a cluster do not.
* The expansion of the universe appears to be speeding up.
* The universe seems to be missing antimatter.

* Negative Mass: *

The narrative above is the basic idea. Anybody can make up a good theory, but it's the endless list of details that will make or break any theory. In this case, the more I study this conjecture the more I find to support it, and I've found nothing that refutes it. Some of the dirty details are described below.

This desription of negative mass is different from the standard desription. In the standard desription, negative mass behaves like this:
* negative mass has negative inertia.
* positive mass will attract positive mass.
* negative mass will repel negative mass.
* negative will follow positive while positive will run away from negative.
This last item appears to violate conservation of momentum by causing runaway perpetual motion.

My description is different and simpler:
* positive mass will attract positive and repel negative.
* negative mass will attract negative and repel positive.

This is based on the geometry of spacetime: Visualize the bowling ball on a trampoline shown in the drawing above:
* positive mass will bend space and fall downward.
* negative mass will bend space and fall upward.

This behavior isn't just wishful thinking, it follows an assertion from the 1950's by Wheeler, Feynman and Stueckelberg. They proposed that antiparticles behave is if they live in negative time. They don't actually live in reverse, it just looks that way mathematically. It means the view from the positive side is the same as the view from the negative side.

This type of symmetry appears through out quantum mechanics:
* Particle interactions are symmetrical in time: the equations work the same going forward or backward.
* The electric field is symmetrical by charge: positive and negative charges will each attract opposites and repel sames.
* My description of mass is symmetrical: positive and negative masses will each repel opposites and attract sames.
* However, the standard desription of negative mass fails the symmetry test: the effects of positive are not the same as the effects of negative.

* Other Details: *

One little known aspect of cosmology is that the expansion of the universe is happening in the voids between galaxy clusters. The bigger the void, the bigger the expansion rate, while galaxies and clusters themselves do not expand. The explanation is that while dark energy is pushing the universe apart, dark matter is holding the galaxies together. The narrative above is different and simpler: negative matter accumulates in voids which causes voids to expand and therefore will compress the galaxies. Though the two mechanisms are very different, either method will cause the same result.

But there is subtle difference between these two mechanisms. The dark matter sphere around assorted galaxies is plotted to match the available evidence. Whereas the negative mass scenario can be plotted based on raw physics. Basically, physicists can calculate how much antimatter should be left over from the big bang. When that amount is applied to the repulsive void scenario above, it will create the structures we see today.

An additional twist in this conjecture is an anomoly called "The Great Attractor". Nearby galaxy clusters seem to be pulling us in the general direction of something beyond the Virgo galaxy cluster. Our motion through the universe causes a dopler shift in the cosmic microwave background. This shift calculates to a speed of about 400 miles per second toward this Attractor.

However, the real twist in this anomoly comes from recent research that discovered a "Dipole Repeller" opposite the Attractor. Our galaxy is at the edge of the Virgo cluster, which is at the edge of a larger super cluster. In the opposite direction is a very large galactic void. This theory of negative mass filling the voids is predicting that the nearby void is pushing us toward Virgo.

This is exactly what the Dipole Repeller discovery has found. A recent study has determined that the Repeller is pushing as much as the Attractor is pulling. Most physicists don't believe this, thinking that the repeller is simply an area of less gravity compared to everywhere else. But the physicists involved are sticking to their story, claiming that the repulsion is real.

* Big Questions: *

This conjecture answers a lot of big questions with the physical world. Nearly all lines of evidence support these claims, but that doesn't mean it's correct. There are several areas that need more study.

(A) This whole concept depends on anti-matter having negative mass. Scientists have wondered about this for a long time, and recent experiments have been done to measure any gravitational pull. These experiments were inconclusive so maybe another method is in order. Also, they were trying to detect a different type of behavior, so maybe the behavior I'm describing is detectable. Who knows, but someone needs to find out.

(B) If the voids are pressing on the galaxies, then there should be a visible edge to the galaxy. This edge isn't visible in any photos but it's possibly too tenuous to see. It's also possible that this edge is manifest as clumping in the spiral arms.

(C) The outer areas of a galaxy should have a different rotation pattern depending on dark matter or negative mass. This might be difficult to spot because both versions can be fine tuned to mimic each other in any concieveable way.

(D) As these huge voids squeeze a galaxy cluster, the squeezing effect could actually create spiral galaxies. It would work like this: If a spherical galaxy is at the edge of a void it will be squeezed horizontally but not vertically. This would cause it to form a flattened disk, though not necessarily a spiral. This would create two plainly visible effects:
* Spiral galaxies will tend to orient parallel to the void.
* Spherical galaxies will be near the center of clusters and spirals near edge.
In fact, both of these effects have been found.

(E) Another area that might be related to this conjecture relates to the gigantic plumes that are ejected from active galaxies. These plumes shoot millions of light years into space, where they typically end in a big mushroom of energy. It is clear that the plume is running into inter-galactic matter, which heats up the plume via friction. So the question is, is the plume running into regular matter and heating via friction, or is it hitting anti-matter and heating via positive-negative anhilation? The geometry of these plumes could sure go either way.

(F) The reader might be wondering, how is it possible that positive dark matter and negative anti-matter both cause galaxy rotation to speed up. It does so because dark matter is mostly in the area of the disk of the galaxy, which will pull in the outer area of the galaxy and cause those stars to speed up. Whereas negative mass would be located far distant from the galaxy, and pushes toward the galaxy. For example, in a galaxy with a diameter of 100,000 lightyears, dark matter would be spread across that diameter, but any negative matter would concentrate its self half way to the next galaxy, which would be a million light years away. Both scenarios will generate a similar gravity & velocity profile, and both will require a little fine tuning to fit reality.

For further reading, wikipedia has plenty of related articles:
Wikipedia Galaxy
Wikipedia Dark Matter
Wikipedia Great Attractor
Wikipedia Dipole Repeller
Wikipedia Negative Mass