The Standard Model of particle physics is the best reflection of our current understanding of how the universe works and how it works. However, this model concerns only five percent of what is around us, the rest consists of what are called dark matter and dark energy about which scientists became aware only from indirect data, from gravitational interactions with objects consisting of ordinary matter …
And recently one of the physicists from Oxford University put forward a new theory according to which dark matter and dark energy are manifestations of the same factor - the so-called "dark liquid", which has a negative mass, which fills the entire universe.
Dark energy and dark matter are concepts adopted to plug the "holes" between the theoretical part (Standard Model) and the results of actual observations. For example, the motion and distribution of galaxies in the universe observed by astronomers is impossible if only the mass of matter that can be seen is taken into account. And since the 1930s, the existence of an invisible extra mass has been compared to the existence of invisible dark matter.
Dark energy is a fresher concept than dark matter. Observing the acceleration of the expansion of the universe, which was discovered in 1998, scientists have put forward the assumption that there is a factor that is responsible for this. And this factor is called dark energy.
Now, the concepts of dark matter and dark energy, combined with the theory of the Standard Model, are the basis of the current main cosmological theory associated with the Big Bang and called Lambda-CDM. The term "Lambda" in the title denotes dark energy as a kind of physical constant, and the abbreviation "CDM" means cold dark matter. The low "temperature" of dark matter is indicated by the facts that it moves extremely slowly and does not interact with ordinary matter at all.
Until recently, dark matter and dark energy were considered as separate phenomena. But some of the scientists have long wondered if they are not different manifestations of the same factor? The last question is the key idea behind a new theory based on the Lambda-CDM model and put forward by Jamie Farnes, an astrophysicist at the University of Oxford.
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According to the new theory of Farnes, 95 percent of the volume of the Universe is filled with some kind of "dark liquid", and dark matter and dark energy are just different manifestations of it at the physical level. And this theory, by the way, describes very well some of the characteristics of the "dark factors" that previously could not be described by anything else.
The "dark liquid" filling the Universe must have a negative mass. It sounds like something from science fiction, however, even from the point of view of Newtonian physics, this is possible, so far only hypothetically. Objects with negative mass must have completely unique and exotic properties. Such objects must create negative gravitational forces by repelling rather than attracting other objects.
If we assume that space is filled with "dark liquid" with negative mass, then its negative gravity would create effects that fully correspond to the observed phenomena, for which the concept of dark energy was proposed. And what is holding galaxies back is not the positive gravity from the dark matter clusters, but the negative gravity of the "dark fluid" surrounding them. In other words, galaxies are a kind of "bubbles" of ordinary matter floating in the cosmic ocean of "dark liquid".
One of the main questions of the new theory is the question of negative mass, for which there is still no confirmation of its existence. However, in his theory, Farnes points out that all other physical forces also have negative values, so why can't mass and gravity be positive and negative? It should be noted that the results of some recent studies speak in favor of the new theory, in the course of which scientists were able to obtain liquids and particles that demonstrate properties due to their negative mass.
The second controversial point of the new theory is that as the Universe expands, the density of the "dark liquid" should decrease so much that the effects of its negative mass should cease to have a tangible effect on everything around it. Farnes explained this by the presence of a certain "tensor of creation" in his equations, according to which new matter with negative mass is constantly being created in the Universe, which allows keeping the density of the "dark liquid" at a relatively constant level all the time.
If Farnes's theory is correct, then all attempts to hunt for dark matter particles are doomed to failure in advance, which is fully consistent with the results of experiments carried out in this direction. Of course, there are very good chances that Farnes's theory is far from reality. Either way, Farnes and his colleagues are already planning to use the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) telescope to observe and search for some effects that could serve as confirmation of the theory of "dark liquid", including the search for signs of the existence of objects with negative mass in the universe.
