A new study has ruled out a range of dark matter candidates:
The team realized that heavier bosons would limit black holes more, and lighter bosons would constrain them less. So they looked at the LIGO and Virgo data of black hole mergers, which tells us the rotation rate of black holes before they merge. It turns out that some of these black holes rotated so quickly that it rules out the existence of ultra-light dark matter bosons. Based on this study, dark matter can’t be axions or light supersymmetry particles.
So once again, a search for dark matter has shown us not what dark matter is, but what it isn’t. It’s extremely frustrating, and potentially exciting because we are quickly running out of options for dark matter.
Brian Koberlein, “One Idea to Explain Dark Matter – Ultralight Bosons – Fails the Test” at Universe Today (April 20, 2021)
See also: Discover: Even the best dark matter theories are crumbling
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.
Physicists devise test to find out if dark matter really exists
Largest particle detector draws a blank on dark matter
What if dark matter just doesn’t stick to the rules?
A proposed dark matter solution makes gravity an illusion
and
Proposed dark matter solution: “Gravity is not a fundamental governance of our universe, but a reaction to the makeup of a given environment.”
A failed search would only be ‘exciting’ after dozens of failures if you knew in advance that the object existed.
Proper excitement: Four years ago I caught a glimpse of a ’41 Studebaker Champion, but I wasn’t quite sure of it. I kept an image of it on the back burner, kept watching for it on every walk, and finally got a good closeup look two years later, verifying its identity. That was exciting.
Improper excitement: For twenty years I kept searching for a wife, believing on the basis of false meritocratic theories that such an object simply had to exist. After hundreds of “exciting” failures I finally decided the meritocratic theory was false, adopted the null hypothesis, and stopped wasting time and energy.
From the paper we find that the prediction that Dark Matter is composed of light bosons flows from the supersymmetry model.
It is also important to know that the supersymmetry model itself is a ‘prediction’ that follows from string theory.
As the following article explains, “String theory predicts that a type of connection, called supersymmetry, exists between these two particle types. Under supersymmetry, a fermion must exist for every boson and a boson for every fermion. Unfortunately, experiments have not yet detected these extra particles.”
In is also important to realize that String Theory has been, since at least the mid 1980s, the leading candidate for mathematically solving the ‘theory of everything’. (i.e. mathematically unifying Gravity and Quantum Mechanics in a single mathematical framework).
The Large Hadron Collider had previously ruled out some of the supersymmetric particles that were predicted by String Theory.
As the following article points out, ‘After years of searching and loads of accumulated data from countless collisions, there is no sign of any supersymmetric particle. In fact, many supersymmetry models are now completely ruled out, and very few theoretical ideas remain valid.’ And the article even goes on to state that “Where will physics go from here, in a universe without supersymmetry? Only time (and a lot of math) will tell.”
Moreover, this present study testing for supersymmetric particles, via black holes, is also very interesting because some theoretical physicists have argued that the reason that we are not seeing any of the theoretical particles predicted by supersymmetry is simply because the Large Hadron Collider is not nearly big enough.
In fact, some theoretical physicists have argued that to properly empirically test and see if gravity and the other forces of nature truly unify, we would need to build a particle collider the size of the solar system.
Might I suggest that this current study with black holes satisfies that ‘size’ requirement for a particle collider, and thus, in over the top fashion, falsifies the supersymmetric model even more forcefully that the LHC has done thus far??
In short, I hold that this present study can be counted as another devastating and fatal blow against the supersymmetry model of string theory.
Of related interest, theoretical physicist Sabine Hossenfelder notes that the prediction(s) from String Theory for the existence of new supersymmetric particles was a ‘prediction’ that was made in order, simply, to avoid the implications of the fine-tuning of the laws of nature.
Specifically Hossenfelder stated that, “new particles must appear” in an energy range of about a TeV (ie accessible at the LHC) “to avoid finetuning.”,, “This was the argument why the LHC should see something new: To avoid finetuning and to preserve naturalness.”,,, “if you continue to ask “why” at this point you’ll notice how the scientific basis crumbles away under your feet. Why should this be?”,, “Because it smells like intelligent design?”
Also of note, both Dark Matter and Dark Energy are fine-tuned, and therefore, to quote Hossenfelder, “smell like intelligent design”.
Supplemental note:
Verse:
Bornagain77/2
I’m sorry, I had no idea you are a theoretical physicist.
If I was “woke” that could have sounded vaguely racist, an attempt to say Dark (black) Matter doesn’t matter because it can be replace by light (white) bosons. I’m surprised that nobody has raised that yet.