It is scientifically desirable to include stellar scale dark matter candidates, such as stellar-mass and planetary-mass ultracompact objects, in discussions of the quest for the identity of the enigmatic dark matter comprising the overwhelming majority
of matter in the cosmos.
After 40 years of failed attempts to find the ad hoc "WIMPs", or any other form of subatomic dark matter particles, maybe it is time to completely reassess what the dark matter might be.
Mike Hawkins has offered a cogent empirically-supported case for stellar-mass and planetary-mass ultracompacts (with primordial black holes being the most likely candidates) as the mystery objects causing microlensing events seen in bulge, halo and QSO
research. [papers available for free:
http://arxiv.org/abs/1106.3875 and
http://arxiv.org/abs/1503.01935 ].
A huge population of primordial black holes satisfies the non-baryonic constraint, might also explain where cosmic rays primarily come from, and might explain why the ARCADE-2 experiment found a unexplained factor-of-6 excess in cosmological radio
emission. Primordial black holes also might constitute the sources of the approximately 6,000/day Fast Radio Bursts that have been discovered/inferred in the last few years by several astrophysical research groups (Science News, Aug. 9, 2014 issue; many
papers subsequently posted to arxiv.org).
It is a scientific error to assume, as most theoretical physicists do, that the dark matter absolutely must be composed of hypothetical subatomic particles. A scientist maintains an open mind, in word and deed. Moreover, a scientist does not condone
denial of important and confirmed empirical results.
Not long ago microlensing research (MOA group) identified at least 0.1 trillion unbound planetary-mass objects in unknown physical states (Suni et al, Nature, May, 2011).
Astrophysicists have discovered an estimated 70 billion brown dwarf objects in the thin disk of the Galaxy. Since the thin disk represents a very small fraction of the Galaxy's volume, one can be reasonably sure that 70,000,000,000 is a lower limit.
So let's see: trillions of unbound planetary-mass nomads and >70 billion brown dwarfs and 100s of billions of stellar-mass MACHO objects. That's a significant percentage of the total dark matter population, and it is a minimum estimate!
Can we understand why theoretical physicists and the scientific press ignore observed stellar scale dark matter candidates, and only emphasize mythical particles like WIMPs and axions that have never been observed? It seems like a dubious and
unscientific obsession.
R.L. Oldershaw
http://www3.amherst.edu/~rloldershaw
Discrete Scale Relativity/Fractal Cosmology
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