A continuing discrepancy between two measurements of the expansion of the universe is “forcing” a re-examination of the Standard Model, which physicists have hated for decades, mainly for philosophical reasons:
“The exciting thing is that if the discrepancy is due to new physics prior to recombination, it will almost certainly have distinctive signatures,” Lewis says. The signatures would show in the finer details of the CMB—something that the next generation of CMB telescopes, such as the upcoming Simons Observatory, could see.
Riess also thinks that the discrepancy is pointing fingers at cosmologists’ standard model. “At some point, you have to start saying the universe has another wrinkle in it, in the cosmological model—in the composition of the universe or in some feature of dark matter or dark energy—[that] could also potentially explain this,” he says. “You have to give that some serious consideration.”Anil Ananthaswamy , “Best-Yet Measurements Deepen Cosmological Crisis” at Scientific American
Two things many cosmologists would like to get rid of are the Big Bang and apparent fine-tuning of the universe. Telling a different story is difficult mainly due to lack of evidence for a different story but they can make do with discrepancies. But then maybe the years have made some of us cynical.
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See also: Sabine Hossenfelder: Is science harmed by an illusion of progress?Tellingly, Hossenfelder adds, “So here is the puzzle: Why can you not find any expert, besides me, willing to publicly voice criticism on particle physics? Hint: It’s not because there is nothing to criticize. ”
Discover: Even the best dark matter theories are crumbling
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Researcher: The search for dark matter has become a “quagmire of confirmation bias” So many research areas in science today are hitting hard barriers that it is reasonable to think that we are missing something.