Apr 18, 2024 11:34 PM
https://www.livescience.com/physics-math...r-suggests
EXCERPTS: In a new paper that has yet to be peer-reviewed, the physicists propose that our universe is dominated by tachyons — a hypothetical kind of particle that always moves faster than light. Tachyons almost certainly don't exist; going faster than light violates everything we know about the causal flow of time from past to future. But the hypothetical particles are still interesting to physicists because of the small chance that even our most closely held notions, like causality, might be wrong.
The researchers suggest that tachyons might be the true identity of dark matter, the mysterious form of matter that makes up most of the mass of almost every single galaxy in the universe, outweighing normal matter 5 to 1.
[...] The researchers calculate that an expanding universe filled with tachyons can initially slow down in its expansion before reaccelerating. Our universe is currently in an accelerating phase, driven by a phenomenon known as dark energy, so this tachyon cosmological model can potentially explain both dark energy and dark matter at the same time.
[...] The physicists found that a tachyon cosmological model was just as good at explaining the supernova data as the standard cosmological model involving dark matter and dark energy. That itself is a surprise, given how unorthodox this idea is... (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPTS: In a new paper that has yet to be peer-reviewed, the physicists propose that our universe is dominated by tachyons — a hypothetical kind of particle that always moves faster than light. Tachyons almost certainly don't exist; going faster than light violates everything we know about the causal flow of time from past to future. But the hypothetical particles are still interesting to physicists because of the small chance that even our most closely held notions, like causality, might be wrong.
The researchers suggest that tachyons might be the true identity of dark matter, the mysterious form of matter that makes up most of the mass of almost every single galaxy in the universe, outweighing normal matter 5 to 1.
[...] The researchers calculate that an expanding universe filled with tachyons can initially slow down in its expansion before reaccelerating. Our universe is currently in an accelerating phase, driven by a phenomenon known as dark energy, so this tachyon cosmological model can potentially explain both dark energy and dark matter at the same time.
[...] The physicists found that a tachyon cosmological model was just as good at explaining the supernova data as the standard cosmological model involving dark matter and dark energy. That itself is a surprise, given how unorthodox this idea is... (MORE - missing details)