The Standard Cosmological Model
The conventional cosmology story comes courtesy of the Lambda cold dark matter (ΛCDM) model, which emerged in the late 1990s. Further exploration of ΛCDM, beyond its 13.82 BYA Big Bang and mythical cosmic inflation, reveals further inanities which discredit it.
The canard of cosmic inflation arose from thinking that the universe began with the 1st discernible light. Instead, the early universe was nearly pitch black, filled with a miasma of light elements: hydrogen, helium, and lithium, until stars formed and baked heavier elements, creating a faintly luminous byproduct.
Not until stars formed were there loci of light. Dispel the notion of the universe starting like the torching of a firecracker and there is no need for the physics-defying folly of cosmic inflation.
Dark Matter
In 1932, Dutch astronomer Jan Oort could not account for the orbital velocity of stars in the Milky Way. Much matter seemed missing.
In 1933, Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky had the same problem figuring galactic speeds: they were moving so fast that the galaxies shouldn’t hold together. He thought that there must be invisible matter giving them extra gravity. He termed it dark matter.
Confirming observations followed, all viewed using the same model. Surveys to figure the large-scale structure of the universe created more credence for dark matter.
ΛCDM is simple but strange. It implies that almost all matter is unseen, and most energy undetected. Beyond the pale lies most of the mass holding the universe together, and the energy propelling the cosmos outward: dark matter and dark energy, respectively.
ΛCDM’s lame accounting of cosmic matter for requisite gravitational oomph is astonishing. Under ΛCDM, materiality is mostly mirage.
“Our inventory of stuff that makes up our universe amounts to a humbling 5%.” ~ American astrophysicist Paul Hamilton et al, in the context of the ΛCDM model
The supposed dark matter does not form atoms. Dark matter has been instead surmised to emanate from some massive, slow-moving exotic particle that accretes into clumps that attract ordinary matter, thereby acting as gravitational seeds for galactic formation and growth. Extensive search has found no such particle. In 2016, after a 20-month search, the most sensitive detector ever created found nothing to indicate that dark matter exists.
“We’ve been looking where our best guess told us to look for dark matter all these years, and we’re starting to wonder if we maybe guessed wrong.” ~ American theoretical astrophysicist Dan Hooper
“The problem of dark matter, raised decades ago by the dynamical studies of clusters of galaxies and by the flat rotation curves of galaxies, is still resisting to explanations.” ~ Swiss theoretical astrophysicist André Maeder
Dark matter has a historical analogy in cosmic aether, which was also presumed but could not be found. Dismissing cosmic aether turned a page in the history of physics theorization, just as disabusing dark matter will do so for astrophysics.
The very idea of dark matter being necessary for requisite cosmic mass is absurd, especially in the high proportion of dark matter estimated. Matter always emanates from quantization of localized fields. If stars and galaxies would fly apart absent dark matter, so too should ordinary matter, as it would lack sufficient cohesiveness.
(A similar dilemma arises at the quantum scale, where virtual particles are hypothesized as necessary to provide subatomic particles with enough mass for existence to occur. Both the standard astrophysics and quantum physics models fail for bad math.)
The astrophysicists formulating a need for dark matter via ΛCDM improperly treated the basic relationship between matter, mass, and gravity. (ΛCDM is incongruous with quantum physics’ Standard Model.) The claim of non-detectable dark matter itself disproves ΛCDM.
Dark Energy
A 1998 astrological survey indicated that the universe was expanding at an accelerating rate. The idea of dark energy arose to explain it. In 2016, additional data on stellar luminosity discredited dark energy as causing accelerating expansion. Dark energy was simply a case of insufficient data viewed through the wrong lens.
“The apparent manifestation of dark energy is a consequence of analyzing the data in an oversimplified theoretical model – one that was in fact constructed in the 1930s, long before there was any real data. A more sophisticated theoretical framework, accounting for the observation that the universe is not exactly homogeneous and that its matter content may not behave as an ideal gas – two key assumptions of standard cosmology – may well be able to account for all observations without requiring dark energy. Indeed, vacuum energy is something of which we have absolutely no understanding in fundamental theory.” ~ Indian theoretical physicist Subir Sarkar
The Milky Way has far fewer neighbors than theory suggests that it should. The galaxy is in an abyss about 2 billion light-years wide.
With the Milky Way in a void, the apparent rate at which the universe is expanding depends upon how it is measured. Measurements based upon the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation suggest a slower expansion rate than measurements of nearby supernovas. The actual expansion rate is probably even slower than the CMB rate.
If you don’t account for the void effects, you could mistake this relationship to indicate there is too much expansion. ~ American astrophysicist Benjamin Hoscheit
Dark energy can also be discounted by facile assumptions about the structure of the universe which conjure it.
“Einstein’s equations of general relativity that describe the expansion of the universe are so complex mathematically that, for a hundred years, no solutions accounting for the effect of cosmic structures have been found. Coarse approximations to Einstein’s equations may introduce serious side-effects, such as the need for dark energy in models designed to fit observational data.” ~ Hungarian astrophysicist László Dobos in 2017
Light Matter’s Modest Missing Half
“It is always dark. Light only hides the darkness.” ~ Daniel McKiernan
ΛCDM hypothesizes that a lot of light matter is too shy to show itself. At least half of the matter in the universe is missing.
“The word missing is a colloquial way of putting it.” ~ American astrophysicist Neta Bahcall
Baryonic matter forms the ordinary atoms and ions that comprise stars, planets, dust, and gas. Galaxies tally but 10% of cosmic baryonic mass. Another 10% is swaddled in space as warm gas. Some 30% coagulates in cold blobs of space gas. The other 50% is presumed to be a thin paste of hot plasma between stars. The conjecture comes as a best guess of hiding in not-so-plain sight, as astronomers have yet to figure a way to spot the hot gruel.
Too Bright
“Something is very wrong.” ~ American astronomer Juna Kollmeier on ΛCDM
A recent census of celestial objects that produce high-energy ultraviolet light created a cosmic accounting conundrum. According to ΛCDM, the universe is far brighter than it should be, based upon the number of light-emitting objects identified.
There is 5 times as much light-emitting ionized gas than ultraviolet sources could produce in the modern, nearby universe. Strangely, for the early, more distant universe, UV sources and ionized gas match up. Hydrogen, which makes up the vast bulk of cosmic gas, may be misunderstood.
