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Space & Astronomy

'Dark fluid' could make up 95% of the universe

By T.K. Randall
December 5, 2018 · Comment icon 27 comments

What makes up the missing 95% ? Image Credit: NASA/CXC/M. Weiss
Scientists have suggested that most of the universe may be made up of a 'dark fluid' with a negative mass.
The precise nature of dark matter and dark energy, which are thought to account for up to 95% of the observable universe, remains one of the most important unsolved mysteries in modern physics.

This latest approach, which has been put forward by scientists at the University of Oxford, involves combining both dark matter and dark energy in to a 'dark fluid' that repels everything around it.

"We now think that both dark matter and dark energy can be unified into a fluid which possesses a type of 'negative gravity,' repelling all other material around them," said Dr. Jamie Farnes.

"Although this matter is peculiar to us, it suggests that our cosmos is symmetrical in both positive and negative qualities."
The existence of negative matter had been previously ruled out because it was believed that it would become less dense as the universe expanded - a direct contradiction of existing observations.

To get around this issue, Dr Farnes has introduced a 'creation tensor' which allows negative masses to be continuously created, thus preventing the 'dark fluid' from diluting as the universe expands.

"Previous approaches to combining dark energy and dark matter have attempted to modify Einstein's theory of general relativity, which has turned out to be incredibly challenging," he said.

"This new approach takes two old ideas that are known to be compatible with Einstein's theory - negative masses and matter creation - and combines them together."

Source: Phys.org | Comments (27)




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Recent comments on this story
Comment icon #18 Posted by InconceivableThoughts 5 years ago
What if there is only one particle inside every atom , that turns positive to negative and depending on how fast this process happens is how many particles we think we see. The anti particle would be invisible and sit in between two neutrons that we see as only one neutron . Which would also explain why the connector (neutron) has more sub atomic mass because it is actually is two different phases of a particle .  Just an idea.
Comment icon #19 Posted by Ozymandias 5 years ago
Dark matter and dark energy are now being considered to be unified into a fluid with 'negative gravity'. Why a 'fluid'?
Comment icon #20 Posted by Hankenhunter 5 years ago
I for one would like to welcome our fluid overlords. So, is peeing a mark of respect or an insult to our liquid friends?  Hank
Comment icon #21 Posted by Coil 5 years ago
Sorry, I just got used to the structure of numerous worlds into which a person passes or angels and gods live that I cannot find some dark energy or mass. Nevertheless, it is not clear what scientists mean if you look for a suitable analogue: it can be a primary negative chaos from which a positive being arises or is it searched by ancient scientists ether or is it all invisible worlds or something different since the gradations of energy are many and they are dozens of times superior to nuclear forces in splitting but this is not all scientific knowledge.   .  
Comment icon #22 Posted by sepulchrave 5 years ago
It is nice that they have some means of testing the theory, but I'm not holding my breath on the results. Negative matter is more philosophically appealing than dark energy+dark matter, as others have pointed out in this thread it is nice to have a universe with balanced duality. But when you have to slap on an ad-hoc ``creation tensor'' (in my opinion it is ad-hoc) to continuously generate more negative mass over time, it sort of ruins the duality, doesn't it?
Comment icon #23 Posted by Seti42 5 years ago
So...They exchanged two place holders (Dark Matter and Dark Energy) for one place holder: Dark Fluid. Why not just call it 'wedontknowium'?
Comment icon #24 Posted by danydandan 5 years ago
The ad hoc, is certainly contentions. I can't see how that aspect of the hypothesis is testable.
Comment icon #25 Posted by StarMountainKid 5 years ago
This is what I noticed, as well. When the equations don't work, just add an equation that compensates for the problem.
Comment icon #26 Posted by sepulchrave 5 years ago
I'd say the ``creation tensor'' is worse than untestable - it is required to force the theory to match observations. Any matter that behaves ``normally'' according to the physical laws as we understand them will either aggregate into dense groups (via mutual attraction by gravity) or diffuse evenly (via mutual repulsion by gravity). This does not appear to be what we observe: the article mentions the dark matter/energy/fluid ``halos'' around galaxies. The only way (it seems, from my reading of the article) to get this to work in their theory is to include this ``creation tensor'' to continuous... [More]
Comment icon #27 Posted by bison 5 years ago
The presence, or absence of the proposed 'dark fluid' is apparently testable in principle. Dr. Farnes proposes to do so when the Square Kilometer Array radio telescope becomes available. If the presence of 'dark fluid' were confirmed, this would also seem to make the creation tensor probable.  Recall that a similar equation was used for the continuous creation of normal matter, in  support of the once-highly-regarded  Steady State Cosmology. A link to an article by Dr. Farnes, writing about this, and his theory in general, appears below: https://theconversation.com/bizarre-dark-fluid-wit... [More]


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