Physicists who want to ditch dark energy
nautil.us106 points by dnetesn 3 months ago
106 points by dnetesn 3 months ago
Dark energy and dark matter aren't really theories. They are sort of the default solution to a set of problems that exist in cosmology. In a sense, every physicist wants to ditch dark matter or dark energy (or at least our current understandings of them), but they just don't know what to replace them with.
What annoys many was the pretense of a theory. At some point in the history of physics we stopped calling open problems, puzzles and (yet) unresolved paradoxes as what different but similarly unexplained phenomena were called in the past and pretended we resolved them.
It's simply unnecessary to pretend its a theory, it is possible to name things without pretending they are theories.
> pretended we resolved them
Who did? Dark matter and energy are famously-unsolved problems in physics.
There is an overton window of acceptable dark matter theories which really should be a lot bigger. Many of the current big frameworks agree on too many details that essentially just arise from curve fitting.
And no, I am not referring to the various MOND theories. They still belong on the same edge of that overton window that it currently occupies.
well the correct theory will have to explain what we actually observe, which is going to limit the nature of what these theories can be. I'm not sure if you have an example of something that should be accepted when it's currently not, but usually that's the case when something is clearly broken with regards to basic facts we already know to be true.
My problem with how the physics community is having this discussion is actually the converse of what you are suggesting: None of the existing theories explain every observation we have, and yet we are sticking to the same general frameworks that don't work.
> an overton window of acceptable dark matter theories which really should be a lot bigger
Overton windows pertain to mainstream opinions [1]. Particle physics shouldn’t be subject to mainstream opinion.
Something can still be mainstream in the particle physics community
Who in the particle physics community claims dark matter or energy are solved?
You are taking this too literally. I’m not GP, but I can guarantee they were not claiming any position like what you’re insinuating.
> You are taking this too literally
They’re calling out a “the pretense of a theory” of dark matter that we “pretended we resolved” unlike the “different but similarly unexplained phenomena were called in the past.” Where do you see the figurative gap?
In reality, we have General Relativity and the Standard Model. Both theories which have defied falsification to the limits of our instruments. Their unification, unfortunately, demands certain discrepancies be resolved. Dark matter and dark energy being possible solutions to those discrepancies. There is no “theory” of dark matter or dark energy, just a compendium of hypotheses.
OP is wrong. Literally, not figuratively.