Everything we acknowledge about dark subject is related to its gist on normal affair , and although it explains the universe very well there are still many doubts about its true nature ( and whether it even be ) because it can not be observed like a shot .
One of the most pop models suggests that particles of dark matter are " cold " , entail the molecule are thousands of times bigger than electrons , act quite slowly compared to the focal ratio of visible radiation . This stale dark matter model matches observations made about the creation but there ’s still plenty about dark thing that ca n’t be explicate as easy . Now , researchers have suggested that instead , dismal subject might be " fuzzy " .
In a paper accept for publication in theMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society , physicists from the University of California and the National Polytechnic Institute , Mexico City suggest a diametrically opposed approaching . In their model , the dark affair particle are about ten trillion time smaller than an electron , and this has some queer quantum mechanic consequences .
A principle of quantum mechanics is that the fundamental building blocks of subject are both particles and waves , although we be given to describe them as just subatomic particle for convenience in approximation . So , these tiny moody affair atom are a just a meager fraction of an electron , but their wavelength is 3,000 light - years across .
throw such a prospicient wavelength ( about 3 pct of the size of it of the Milky Way ) create a constant incumbrance between the dark thing particles , a bit like the Earth’s surface of a pool in a thunderstorm . On these turgid scale , the quantum mechanically skillful dimension have an wallop on galactic rather than atomic scale .
The cold dark topic model requires a higher density of sorry matter at the nerve center of galaxies , and because normal matter is attracted to dark thing , it should peak at the shopping center too – something not project in observation . However , blurry dark matter interacts with itself in such a path that it is more evenly spread , so when the normal issue is pull in to the dismal matter it is more distribute out over large scales , which does match observation .
The researchers test if the foggy dark issue model works for actual galaxies . Using NASA ’s Chandra , they studied the emanation ofhot gases in 13 galaxies , which is a good tracer of dark matter . base on datum assemble by Chandra , the squad estimated how much dark issue would be present in each extragalactic nebula , and how it ’s spread out from the center . Models in which fuzzy dark matter particle had the same amount of energy did not work at all , but if the bleary dark issue particles were allowed to be “ excited ” then they were able to match the observation just as well or better than cold dark matter .
While intriguing , this is only the first step for a potential alternative to cold dark matter . There ’s a farseeing way to go before this could be considered a serious competitor .
