Origin of dark matter and dark energy

[DukeWalker]

I joined to ask the community about a few questions I have had for some time now. One basic law is that matter cannot be created or destroyed. Is this true of anti-matter as well? If the answer is "yes", is it possible that dark energy and dark matter are the products of the early matter/anti-matter annialation process?

I apologize profusely if these are the dumbest questions ever asked of this community

 

[yevaud]

Not dumb at all.

The only difference (well, without going into matters of Charge-Parity ) is that Anti-Matter possesses an opposite charge to "normal" matter. Just to clarify that.

Dark Energy and Dark Matter are two entirely different animals.

Dark Energy is an as-yet undetermined repulsive force that has to do with the "increased" (beyond the expected) velocity of expansion of the universe (that is to say, observed galactic groups, clusters, superclusters, etc., are expanding away from each other much faster than was originally predicted).

Dark Matter is an as-yet undetermined form of matter which was discovered, when it was determined that something in the halos of observed galaxies was affecting their rotational velocities, such that their outer regions were, in fact, rotating much faster than would be otherwise expected (e.g., the gravitational influence of Dark Matter was acting on the galaxies as if their were large concentrations of matter present).

Both are "Dark," as they cannot be directly observed.

Does this help?

 

[DukeWalker]

Sorry for delay. Thanks for info.

 

[Saiph]

and to critique one point, you can destroy (and create!) matter..it just turns into (or comes from) energy. By energy I mean photons. What you can't "destroy" is that combination. You can turn matter into energy, and vice versa, but you can't eliminate it entirely.

 

[mabus]

I joined to ask the community about a few questions I have had for some time now. One basic law is that matter cannot be created or destroyed. Is this true of anti-matter as well? If the answer is "yes", is it possible that dark energy and dark matter are the products of the early matter/anti-matter annialation process?

I apologize profusely if these are the dumbest questions ever asked of this community

Nothing is really certain when it comes to dark matter/energy. We have not actually FOUND either, but physicists speculate that they must exist from inference. That is to say, matter that we see behaves in such a way as to suggest that "something else" is out there causing it. That assumes that our theories on matter are not faulty though.

Here's a little paradox. The dark matter and energy must exist (physicists speculate) because our theories on matter cannot account for the way matter behaves at great distances (like galaxies). Introducing dark matter and energy, with as yet undefined attribites "saves" the theories on matter in an as yet unexplained way. Still with me?

Of course this assumes our theories on matter are correct. Here's the problem, if they are correct, then they fail to explain the existance of dark matter and energy.

I am in the extreme minority here but I am seriously skeptical of dark matter and dark energy. It smells too much of the god of the gaps for my liking. I'll hang my hat on M-theory as a better solution to the unexplained behaviour of matter over "dark" matter and "dark" energy that no one has ever seen.

 

[Saiph]

You're not in an extreme minority at all. Most astronomer's are comfortable with it, but nothing better has come to light just yet. People are working on MOND and M-theory, but they just don't work well with observations.


Good news is that any investigation into the inferred properties of dark matter & energy isn't wasted, as they outline the same problems and gaps that any new theories have to explain. Granted, by examining the studies with DM & DE in mind, we may miss something, but that's going to happen with any study.

 

[ramparts]

Not entirely true - M-theory is consistent with observations, but broad enough that that doesn't say much MOND has a harder time of the observations.