As I explained here,
dark matter in the universe is a remnant of inflation. At the end of the
inflationary period, the universe is left in an oscillating state. These
oscillations can be viewed as particles, or inflaton bosons, the inflaton being
the scalar field that drives inflation. These oscillations decay to form matter
particles, the stuff we’re made of.
However, not all of them decay. In fact, only
about one-sixth of them decay. The rest are still there. They are the
mysterious stuff we call dark matter. There is five times as much dark matter
as ordinary matter in the universe.
I was under the impression that this was an
original prediction of the spacetime model I’ve been telling you about in this
blog. Turns out I was wrong. A paper
published this week references at least ten previous publications that have
explored this idea. So far nobody has gone very far with it because, in itself,
it doesn’t solve the problem that all inflation models proposed so far are
inadequate in some way. The basic reason is that you need the correct spacetime
model to find the correct inflation model, and nobody has it but the readers of
this blog—that’s right, nobody. Physicists don’t listen to retired engineers.
Isn’t life grand?
