vacuum energy and dark matter
- From: ajmayo@xxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: 22 Mar 2006 06:03:47 -0800
As I understand it, the primary argument for the existence of dark
matter stems from the anomalous velocity vs distance curves exhibited
by galactic stars.
It occurred to me recently, though, that the so-called 'missing mass'
might simply be accounted for by vacuum fluctuations.
When particle pairs form and annihilate as a result of vacuum
fluctuations, the total energy integrated over times significantly
longer than (as I recall) 10^-43 sec will of course be zero, thus
ensuring that the principle of energy conservation is not violated.
But during the brief lifetime of that particle pair each particle has
mass. When the particles mutually annihilate, their 'borrowed' energy
is, in essence, 'returned', but during the time the particles existed,
their mass can only be a non-zero, positive amount, and therefore over
a region of space at any instant in time the mass of the so-called
'vacuum' is non-zero.
Another way of looking at it is this. We already know that the vacuum
has energy and the Casimir Effect shows that a confined region of
vacuum will have a nett energy less than that of the unconfined region,
because within the confined region wavelengths longer than the spacing
between the parallel plates are excluded.
But E=mc2 therefore if the vacuum has energy it also has mass E/c2.
I have no idea how the numbers crunch not being remotely a theoretical
physicist just a curious layman but if anyone with more mathematical
chops than I would care to comment, it would make for an interesting
thread...
.
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