There is No Dark Matter
The Boson/Fermion Dichotomy Extends to The Celestial Level
I believe that there is no such thing as dark matter and that, instead, the unexpected motion of stars orbiting galactic centers is the visual embodiment of the intrinsic angular momentum required of all fermions. That is both the hypothesis and the conclusion of this paper.
At the subatomic level, all particles may be categorized as being either bosons or fermions, and the two groups exhibit widely differing behavior. I believe that this so-called “boson/fermion dichotomy” extends to the celestial level, and I will try to convince you of that by considering a wide variety of celestial objects and comparing their properties to those associated with the two categories of matter. Not to keep you in suspense, the conclusions I draw from those comparisons may be summarized in these two lists of celestial objects that I consider to be either bosons or fermions.
I will make one assumption in order to paint that picture: that clustering at the celestial level is equivalent to clumping at the subatomic level. We will look at which celestial objects cluster and which appear to astronomers to require dark matter to explain their stars’ motion. The lists should be opposite since clumping is a bosonic trait and non-zero intrinsic angular momentum is a fermionic trait.
Fermions CANNOT HAVE zero intrinsic angular momentum. That’s just one of the rules that apply to fermions and contrasts them with bosons, which ARE allowed to have zero angular momentum. At the celestial level stars were unexpectedly discovered to revolve around spiral galaxies with virtually the same velocity near the center as they have around the perimeter. Astronomers interpret that behavior as implying the existence of some unseen mass keeping the stars from flying out, and it’s usually referred to as dark matter because it has not been detected. I’m suggesting that there is no dark matter, but rather the unexpected motion of stars in spiral galaxies is the visual embodiment of the intrinsic angular momentum that all fermions are required to possess. In contrast, the stars in elliptical galaxies don’t behave that way, but rather drift slowly in seemingly random orbits. Elliptical galaxies don’t appear to have dark matter in them.
At the subatomic level bosons clump together, while fermions don’t. It is the fact that electrons are fermions that causes them to form into separate shells around nuclei. No clumping allowed. On the other hand, within larger nuclei the most popular model holds that their protons and neutrons form into bosons, such as helium nuclei (alpha particles). Large nuclei may be thought of as clusters of bosons. At the celestial level, groups of galaxies also form into clusters, in this case dominated by elliptical galaxies. That fact, together with the apparent absence of dark matter in elliptical galaxies, makes us feel justified in making a first guess — that elliptical galaxies are bosons. Spiral galaxies are generally relegated to the peripheries of those clusters, as though they were avoiding participation in that clumping. That, and the seeming presence of dark matter in spiral galaxies, leads us to guess that spiral galaxies are fermions. Those facts make up the first pair of data points in our argument. We will go on to look at the other celestial objects and see if the dichotomy observed for groups of galaxies also applies to them.
Having examined the group behavior of elliptical versus spiral galaxies, we will next look at their composition. Both types of galaxies, particularly when they’re disturbed or in the process of merging, are seen to contain dense groups of stars called “globular clusters.” Our galaxy is said to contain approximately 200 such clusters, while other galaxies, for example M87, are seen to contain thousands. We said earlier that large nuclei are considered to be composed of groups of bosons and so we are justified in examining whether globular clusters might also be bosons, with their existence in galaxies being the equivalent of alpha particles forming within nuclei.
Globular clusters are generally considered to be devoid of dark matter, similar to what can be said about elliptical galaxies, re-inforcing the image of globular clusters as bosons. Like ellipticals, their stars swarm in random directions. Globular clusters frequently appear in the area between merging galaxies. In the same way that two nucleons may be bound together by the sharing of an alpha particle, so too could you visualize those globular clusters as being, not just bosons but EXCHANGE bosons, binding two galaxies. In fact, the globular clusters in our galaxy are known to have highly ellipical orbits, taking them far outside the Milky Way, so when our galaxy does eventually get near another, those globular clusters will likely be the first messengers from our galaxy to the other.
Researchers have presented evidence that points to the existence of globular clusters that exist within galaxy clusters but are not associated with any individual galaxy. Instead they move freely within the cores of the galaxy clusters. Exchange bosons, anyone?
Now, having the word “cluster” as part of their name, we should consider the nature of the stars within globular clusters. Specifically, since we have said that nuclei are clumps of bosons and that GCs are groups of stars, we could predict that the stars within the globular clusters might themselves be bosons. The simplest boson formed of nucleons would be the deuteron, composed of one neutron bound to one proton. We visualize a binary star as looking similar to a deuteron, so predict that globular clusters might be dominated by binary stars. Sure enough, a little research shows that globular clusters are, in fact, dominated by binary stars! It may be easy to imagine that a tight-knit group of single stars might get close enough together to capture each other’s gravitational fields, but that vision would be premature. Having successfully predicted to ourselves that globular clusters are dominated by binary stars, we suggest that the stars form into clusters BECAUSE they’re binaries, and not because single stars drifted close together and then formed binaries. We suggest that the order of operation is reversed… stars form bosonic binaries which in turn form into bosonic clusters rather than single stars forming clusters which then become dominated by binaries due to their close proximity. The view presented here gives a reason for the cluster to form, where-as in the other case no explanation is offered for why the single stars would have been brought together into clusters in the first place.
Adding to the evidence that the binary stars of globular clusters are bosons, researchers say that newly-minted white dwarf stars are found in the PERIPHERIES of those clusters. White dwarf stars generally represent the final stage of the existence of SINGLE stars so they would have existed for a long time. If, over that time, the bosonic nature of the GC’s binary stars caused them to drift towards the center of the cluster, then if the single star — white dwarf were a fermion that would go a long way to explaining why they are found in GC’s peripheries. As fermions, they are not participating in the clumping. Same as spiral galaxies being found in the peripheries of galactic clusters. This view may be considered an alternative explanation to that which the aforementioned researchers suggested.
Now we turn to another type of celestial object with a mass between that of a star and a galaxy — dwarf ellipticals. Having decided that elliptical galaxies are bosons, the astute reader might have wondered why I included dwarf ellipticals in the list of fermions, rather than bosons. In fact, I had a moment of doubt about my entire theory when I ran across an article saying that dwarf ellipticals are chock full of dark matter. That would make them similar to spiral galaxies so that, in my theory, they should also be fermions. It was the word “elliptical” in their name that threw me, since I consider regular ellipticals to be bosons and they do not appear to have dark matter. But then my moment of doubt was turned into further confirmation of my theory when I found other articles saying that, rather than being smaller or fainter versions of regular elliptical galaxies, dwarf ellipticals are seen to have structure similar to the bars in spiral galaxies. Dwarf ellipticals are simply misnamed, at least as they apply to my theory. They ought to be called dwarf spirals. One such article says “Despite their name, dwarf ellipticals are not really fainter versions of true elliptical galaxies, but are structurally distinct.”
Now, if dwarf ellipticals are fermions that are smaller than spiral galaxies, which are also fermions, it should come as no surprise to the reader to learn that dwarf ellipticals are usually found as companions to spiral galaxies. I suggest they are found outside of spiral galaxies because they are fermions, like the electrons around nuclei. Another article confirms that isolated elliptical galaxies have fewer, smaller or intrinsically less luminous close dwarf companions than spirals.
When we consider planets I would point out that Pluto is a binary with Charon and the combination has a much different orbit than the other planets (or near planets) of our solar system. The orbit is more elliptical (like the orbits of the Milky Way’s globular clusters) and not in the same plane as the other planets. Again, behavior seen at one celestial level is repeated at another level. We can predict that binary planets in other solar systems will also have non-planar orbits. Similarly, asteroids are frequently found to be binaries, orbiting around a common center of gravity. That was a surprise to many astronomers because it often doesn’t seem like their gravitational fields would be strong enough to bind them together. Perhaps that which makes them bosons is strong enough to overcome the centrifugal force that would cause them to fly apart.
In conclusion, it is apparent to me that a cohesive picture of the boson/fermion dichotomy extending to the celestial level may be easily drawn from existing astronomical observations. Because of the successful self-reinforecemnt of the components of the picture, and the repeated behavior seen at multiple levels of complexity, we conclude that spiral galaxies are fermions and there is no dark matter. The star motion attributed to the presence of dark matter is actually the intrinsic angular momentum required of all fermions.
