QUANTUM RELATIVITY AND DARK MATTER

Part One: Quantum Relativity

Sometimes, things are not where they are supposed to be.

Light Bends in Gravitation Field

Foreword

Is it possible that Dark Matter might actually be proof of the long sought Graviton?

For those of you that are familiar with my general Modus Operandi, I will be taking a little vacation and wearing a different hat today. Can I behave in the realm of an actual physics debate? Read and see.

This article is part of the series called Quantum Relativity. If you view my Lists and About data, all the other articles can be seen.

Chapter 1 — Background

We hear all sorts of debate about how Quantum Mechanics and Relativity are incompatible. The fact is that this is only true of General Relativity. Quantum Mechanics and Special Relativity are good buddies.

Check out the Wikipedia link to Relativistic Quantum Mechanics (9 May 2022, at 21:48 UTC.)

Relativistic quantum mechanics (RQM) is quantum mechanics applied with special relativity.

That said, I will move on to my original idea, which is my concept of Quantum Relativity. Therein I will attempt to do a rather simplistic thought experiment linking the quantum world with General Relativity and showing how the Graviton quantum particle might be the missing link to the mystery of Dark Matter.

Here are the links to the pertinent concepts.

Wikipedia Graviton (15 May 2022, at 23:27 UTC.)

It is hypothesized that gravitational interactions are mediated by an as yet undiscovered elementary particle, dubbed the Graviton. The three other known forces of nature are mediated by elementary particles: electromagnetism by the photon, the strong interaction by gluons, and the weak interaction by the W and Z bosons.

Wikipedia Dark Matter (30 June 2022, at 01:03 UTC.)

Dark matter is a hypothetical form of matter thought to account for approximately 85% of the matter in the universe. Dark matter is called "dark" because it does not appear to interact with the electromagnetic field, which means it does not absorb, reflect, or emit electromagnetic radiation (like light) and is, therefore, difficult to detect. Various astrophysical observations – including gravitational effects which cannot be explained by currently accepted theories of gravity unless more matter is present than can be seen – imply dark matter's presence. For this reason, most experts think that dark matter is abundant in the universe and has had a strong influence on its structure and evolution.
According to consensus among cosmologists, dark matter is composed primarily of a not yet characterized type of subatomic particle.

Wikipedia General Relativity (29 June 2022, at 13:30 UTC.)

General relativity, also known as the general theory of relativity and Einstein's theory of gravity, is the geometric theory of gravitation... providing a unified description of gravity as a geometric property of space and time or four-dimensional spacetime.
Einstein's theory has astrophysical implications, including the prediction of black holes ... It also predicts gravitational lensing, where the bending of light results in multiple images of the same distant astronomical phenomenon. Other predictions include the existence of gravitational waves, which have been observed directly by the physics collaboration LIGO and other observatories. In addition, general relativity has provided the base of cosmological models of an expanding universe.
General relativity predicts that the path of light will follow the curvature of spacetime as it passes near a star.
More generally, processes close to a massive body run more slowly when compared with processes taking place farther away; this effect is known as gravitational time dilation.

I would be genuinely surprised if some folks have not figured out where I am going with this, but that will not stop me from elaborating on it anyway.

Chapter 2 — Light and Gravity

If you view the image at the top of this article you will see light refracting though several layers of material surrounding a star. For a refresher see Wikipedia Refraction (27 June 2022, at 12:00 UTC.)

In physics, refraction is the redirection of a wave as it passes from one medium to another. The redirection can be caused by the wave's change in speed or by a change in the medium.

Now imagine that there is no “material” surrounding the star, but instead a gravitation field. The layers now represent different “time zones” due to Gravitational Time Dilation. As we get closer to the surface of the star, time slows down, while further away, time is flows normally. Light refraction is the result of light moving between mediums where it travels at different speeds, but in a gravitation field, it literally moves slower because time is moving slower. When numerous light waves move past a massive object, the rays will be bent and focused as if they are traveling through a lens. This is called Gravitational Lensing.

Because photons can be focused by massive objects and they are responsible for electromagnetic phenomena, we would expect electromagnetic fields to propagate further in the presence of Gravitational Lensing. To my knowledge, this phenomena has never been observed. The primary reason being electromagnetic fields drop off in intensity very quickly when dealing with astronomical distances, but perhaps this might be observed in a dense star cluster.

An interesting side note here. If the bending of light in a gravitation field does in fact resemble refraction, does that mean that at some angles of incidence, the light actually reflects off the field?

At this point, I would be surprised if a lot of folks have not figured out where I am going with this.

Chapter 3 — A New Thought Experiment

Now for the hypothetical part. Suppose that Gravitons exist, is there any reason to assume they would not behave in the same manner as photons when experiencing Gravitational Lensing? One might argue that they create the time dilation and are thus immune to it, but photons create the electromagnetic field and can still be influenced by it, so I discount that line of thought.

Obviously, if Gravitons can be focused, then we have areas in space where the gravitation attraction exceeds the inverse square ratio that we have come to expect and because it is focused, it might well exceed normal values by quite a bit.

Chapter 4 — Dark Matter

If you study Dark Matter for a while, especially in galactic clusters, you may note that it occurs in “strings” that connect galaxies. This is exactly how a gravity lens would work. Each collection of stars at the edge of a galaxy would focus stronger gravitational attraction for collections of stars past the edge and these in turn would focus stronger gravitational attraction for collections of stars even further out. Conceivably linking star clusters like a necklace of pearls all the way to a neighboring galaxy.

Also, in galaxies that do not show the presence of Dark Matter, you generally see a diffuse globe of matter without any defined edges. This is more of less what would be expected if there were no way to focus gravity internally or externally.

Chapter 5 — Conclusions

The first conclusion is that I can behave when I work at it. (It surprised me as well.)

The second conclusion is that if a “not yet characterized type of subatomic particle” is indeed the solution to the phenomena of Dark Matter, then “Graviton” might be the best name for it.

As always, it is really up to you to decide whether there is any merit to the argument or not and once again, I hope that this essay may inspire someone to see an actual solution to the problem.

Chapter 6 — Updates

A further discussion of whether this concept could actually account for the requisite quantity of Dark Matter expected in the universe can be found in Part 2.