[ExI] A possible mechanism for Vinge's Zones of Thought?

BillK pharos at gmail.com
Thu Sep 6 14:23:14 UTC 2012


On Thu, Sep 6, 2012 at 12:20 AM, Dave Sill wrote:
> http://arxiv.org/abs/1208.4376
>
> Dark Matter with Density-Dependent Interactions
>
> Kimberly K. Boddy, Sean M. Carroll, Mark Trodden
> (Submitted on 21 Aug 2012 (v1), last revised 31 Aug 2012 (this version, v2))
> The decay and annihilation cross-sections of dark matter particles may
> depend on the value of a chameleonic scalar field that both evolves
> cosmologically and takes different values depending on the local matter
> density. This possibility introduces a separation between the physics
> relevant for freeze-out and that responsible for dynamics and detection in
> the late universe. We investigate how such dark sector interactions might be
> implemented in a particle physics Lagrangian and consider how current and
> upcoming observations and experiments bound such dark matter candidates. A
> specific model allows for an increase in the annihilation cross-section by a
> factor of $10^6$ between freeze-out and today, while different choices of
> parameters allow for scattering cross-sections near the astrophysical
> bounds.
>
> I'm not a physicist. Can anyone explain this in layman's terms?
>
>

No.  ;)  I think it is a speculative paper really only of interest to
other physicists.
Remember the academic motto - Publish or die!

Nobody knows what dark matter is and it hasn't been detected yet. All
they can see are effects which are assumed to be due to mysterious
dark matter. So people speculate.......


BillK



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