{"id":9199,"date":"2024-04-29T19:28:19","date_gmt":"2024-04-29T23:28:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/?p=9199"},"modified":"2024-04-29T19:28:19","modified_gmt":"2024-04-29T23:28:19","slug":"uc-irvine-astronomers-simulations-support-dark-matter-theory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/?p=9199","title":{"rendered":"UC Irvine Astronomers\u2019 Simulations Support Dark Matter Theory"},"content":{"rendered":"
Francisco Mercado (right), a recent Ph.D. graduate from the UC Irvine Department of Physics & Astronomy who is now a postdoctoral scholar at Pomona College, and Jorge Moreno (left), associate professor of physics and astronomy at Pomona College, ran computer simulations to support the idea that dark matter exists and helps to explain how the universe works. Their work is the subject of a paper published recently in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomy Society. Pomona College<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Computer simulations by astronomers support the idea that dark matter \u2013 matter that no one has yet directly detected but which many physicists think must be there to explain several aspects of the observable universe \u2013 exists, according to the researchers, who include those at the University of California, Irvine. <\/p>\n

The work addresses a fundamental debate in astrophysics \u2013 does invisible dark matter need to exist to explain how the universe works the way it does, or can physicists explain how things work based solely on the matter we can directly observe? Currently, many physicists think something like dark matter must exist to explain the motions of stars and galaxies. <\/p>\n

\u201cOur paper shows how we can use real, observed relationships as a basis to test two different models to describe the universe,\u201d said Francisco Mercado, lead author and recent Ph.D. graduate from the UC Irvine Department of Physics & Astronomy who is now a postdoctoral scholar at Pomona College. \u201cWe put forth a powerful test to discriminate between the two models.\u201d <\/p>\n

The test involved running computer simulations with both types of matter \u2013 normal and dark \u2013 to explain the presence of intriguing features measured in real galaxies. The team reported their results in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomy Society<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

The features in galaxies the team found \u201care expected to appear in a universe with dark matter but would be difficult to explain in a universe without it,\u201d said Mercado. \u201cWe show that such features appear in observations of many real galaxies. If we take these data at face value, this reaffirms the position of the dark matter model as the one that best describes the universe we live in.\u201d<\/p>\n

These features Mercado noted describe patterns in the motions of stars and gas in galaxies that seem to only be possible in a universe with dark matter. <\/p>\n

\u201cObserved galaxies seem to obey a tight relationship between the matter we see and the inferred dark matter we detect, so much so that some have suggested that what we call dark matter is really evidence that our theory of gravity is wrong,\u201d said co-author James Bullock, professor of physics at UCI and dean of the UCI School of Physical Sciences. \u201cWhat we showed is that not only does dark matter predict the relationship, but for many galaxies it can explain what we see more naturally than modified gravity. I come away even more convinced that dark matter is the right model.\u201d<\/p>\n

The features also appear in observations made by proponents of a dark matter-free universe. \u201cThe observations we examined \u2013 the very observations where we found these features \u2013 were conducted by adherents of dark matter-free theories,\u201d said co-author Jorge Moreno<\/a>, associate professor of physics and astronomy at Pomona College. \u201cDespite their obvious presence, little-to-no analysis was performed on these features by that community. It took folks like us, scientists working with both regular and dark matter, to start the conversation.\u201d <\/p>\n

Moreno added that he expects debate within his research community to follow in the wake of the study, but that there may be room for common ground, as the team also found that such features only appear in their simulations when there is both dark matter and<\/em> normal matter in the universe. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs stars are born and die, they explode into supernovae, which can shape the centers of galaxies, naturally explaining the existence of these features,\u201d said Moreno. \u201cSimply put, the features we examined in observations require both the existence of dark matter and the incorporation of normal-matter physics.\u201d <\/p>\n

Now that the dark matter model of the universe appears to be the leading one, the next step, Mercado explained, is to see if it remains consistent across a dark matter universe.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be interesting to see if we could use this same relationship to even distinguish between different dark matter models,\u201d said Mercado. \u201cUnderstanding how this relationship changes under distinct dark matter models could help us constrain the properties of dark matter itself.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Computer simulations by astronomers support the idea that dark matter \u2013 matter that no one has yet directly detected but which many physicists think must be there to explain several aspects of the observable universe \u2013 exists, according to the researchers, who include those at the University of California, Irvine.  The work addresses a fundamental…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":9200,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/news.uci.edu\/files\/2024\/04\/astronomyfacultypictures-4-copy-ccef0fdd9e1bfe26-1440x960.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"UC Irvine Astronomers\u2019 Simulations Support Dark Matter Theory","footnotes":""},"categories":[207],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9199"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9201,"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9199\/revisions\/9201"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}