Dark Matter and Dark Energy

Dark Energy and Matter

by Wilf James

I have been reading a lot about the continuing problen faced by cosmologists about what they call Dark Energy and/or Dark Matter.
I have my own ideas on this subject which I will try to explain here.

Firstly I must explain that I am not a cosmologist and that any attempt to explain cosmic phenomena with mathematics is outside my competence. I use fairly simple logic based on my long experience with electronic physics.

The Expansion of the Universe
All indications from the time of Edwin Hubble's observations show that the universe is expanding. Hundreds of theories have been propounded to explain this phenomenon. Some are based on abstruse maths and others on suppositions, but none have yet provided an answer that is acceptable to the whole astronomical community. There are two major ideas. One is that the Universe is expanding because of its initial impetus following the Big Bang. The other is that there is something which is attracting what we can perceive in an outward way. This something must be a form of matter if the outward expansion is due to the gravity of whatever it is. The gravity argument is weakened because the rate of expansion appears to be diminishing slightly. If gravity were involved, the rate would be increasing. The initial impetus argument is weakened by the concept that spacetime itself is expanding. The expansion is not just the objects in space flying ever further apart.

Empty Space
Many years ago I learned about radio. The explanations about radio propagation then depended on an invisible and undetectable substance called "The Ether". The Ether was a medium that could be modulated by electromagnetic waves in a comparable manner to sound waves in air or water. Then, later, it was claimed that there was no such thing as The Ether. Then, even later still, the apparently empty parts of space consisted of an invisible and undetectable substance called "Spacetime".
To me, having tried to make sense of the current definitions of spacetime, there isn't that much difference between spacetime and The Ether. Both are concepts which are used to provide the basis of theories which provide explanations for observed phenomena. The spacetime concept is supported by the effect that gravity has on light. Light rays are deflected by gravity. Distant galaxies have been observed through the gravitational lensing effect of nearer galaxies.

Gravity and Other Forces
Newton described the effects and laws of gravity many years ago. He did not say what gravity is, and nobody has provided a satisfactory answer to the problem of what creates it. We know that it is a property of mass but little more. There is the theory that it is created by a super large particle called a "Higgs Boson". It is hoped that when the CERN Super Collider is running, such a particle can be found. In the meantime we just have a force that is a property of mass that we call gravity.
Gravity is not the only mysterious force. There are two others which have some comparable properties. These are magnetism and electrostatics. Magnetism is a force that is created by the passage of an electric current. (It never appears spontaneously by itself.) A lot is known about magnetism but it still holds some mysteries. Electrostatic forces are less researched nowadays but their effects are fairly well known. Both magnetic and electrostatic forces have two polarities whereas gravity (so far) is only known to have one polarity. One way of referring to the similar properties of these three forces is to say that they each in their own ways stress spacetime. The magnetic and electrostatic forces combine in electromagnetic waves. These range from the low frequencies of radio to the very high frequencies of x-rays and beyond. The energy in these waves is directly in proportion to their frequencies. If the three forces stress spacetime individually, the conbined forces in electromagnetic radiation must presumably must modulate spacetime. Where does The Ether end and Spacetime begin?

The Stresses in Spacetime
The gravitational stresses in spacetime have been observed by their effects on light. Light itself is a vibrational stress in spacetime. The effects of electrostatics and magnetism on spacetime have had far less publicity. One can only presume that their effects could be comparable to that of gravity if there was a mechanism to make them comparably as strong as the gravity of a galaxy. As magnetic and electrostatic effects have never been observed in comparable strengths to that of gravity, they are generally ignored as being irrelevant by cosmologists.

Magnetism and Electrostatics
Both of these phenomena are bipolar but in different ways. Magnetic poles cannot (so far) be created in isolation from each other. Every North pole has its corresponding South pole. Electrostatic poles can be created in isolation from one another. It is this fact that I will dwell on and make use of in the rest of this essay.
Magnetism and electrostatics have one aspect in common. Similar poles are mutually repulsive. The repulsion force caused by two similar poles that are close to each other is proportional to the strengths of the poles and inversely proportional to their separation distance.

Electrostatics
The term Electrostatics is a sort of description of the phenomenon. Electric fields can only be built up when no current flows. The electric charges which cause these fields must be stationary or static. The nature of the charge is based on the presence or absence of electrons in, or on the surface of, a body which has an electric charge. An excess of electrons is called negative for historical reasons. A deficiency of electrons is called positive for the same reasons. The strength of charge is directly proportional to the excess or deficiency of electrons. The electric pressure or voltage of a charge is inversely proportional to the capacity of an object to store a charge for a given electron deficit or excess. Positive or negative charges in isolation are a surface phenomenon. The distribution of charge on a surface is inversely proportional to its local size. For example, a teardrop streamlined shape will have most of its charge at its pointed end and least at its rounded end. The charge on a perfect sphere will be distributed evenly. This variation of charge points to a factor which makes electrostatic charge different to gravity. The electrostatic charge posessed by an object is independent of its size or mass. The strength of gravity is directly in proportion to mass.

Observing the Effects of Electrostatics
In the early days when experiments were done with electrostatics, a device was created to give an indication of the strength of an electrostatic charge. This consisted of two small pieces of gold leaf suspended on a metal hook inside a glass container. The hook was at the end of a rod connected to a plate above the top of the container. It was called an electroscope. This device relies on the mutual repulsion of similarly charged objects. The pieces of gold leaf would be charged similarly when a charged object was put in the proximity of the plate at the top of the electroscope. This would cause the gold leaves to repel each other, forming an inverted V. The spread of the leaves gives a rough indication of the charge present. A simple electroscope can be made today with small pieces of expanded polystyrene attached to very thin wires to replace the gold leaf. (See illustrations)

Electrostatics in Isolation
This part is theoretical because there is no way on Earth to perform such an experiment. Imagine a spaceman on an asteroid in space. He has a device which can create high electrostatic voltages such as a Van de Graff generator. The asteroid is tethered to another asteroid by an insulating tether. The spaceman uses his generator to charge up the tethered asteroid. The effect of the charging would be to make the asteroids attract each other because of their different electrostatic charges. If the spaceman had two asteroids tethered to his original asteroid and charged them up similarly, they would repel each other and push themselves as far away from each other as possible. If these two asteriods were tethered together and the tethers to the original asteroid were cut, they would stretch their mutual tether to its limit and remain separated in this way until their charges dissipated. However, in space, there would be little or nothing that could cause the charges to dissipate so the asteroids would remain tethered but separated for a very long time. This state would continue until the tether broke. Then the two asteroids would keep moving away from each other indefinitely. The electrostatic force pushing them apart would diminish in proportion to the square of the distance of their separation from each other but it would never disappear entirely.

The Possible Effect of Electrostatics in the Universe
The effect of a high similar charge on two asteroids can be imagined. Now the idea can be considered that all objects in the universe have been similarly charged. Where there are concentrations of matter, the mutually attractive force of gravity will exceed the mutually repulsive force of electrostatics. This will keep groups of bodies together - on a galactic scale - as has been observed. The question now is, what would be the effect if galaxies had high electric charges and repelled each other in a similar manner to the identically charged asteroids? At some point in the development of the early universe, when galaxies started to form, they became electrostatically charged in the same way and pushed each other apart. When the galaxies were relatively closer together, this repulsive force would have been stronger. Now it is apparently very weak but still stronger than the gravitational attraction between galaxies.

A Possible Cause of Electrostatic Charging
This has been observed in the local solar wind. The solar wind consists mainly of protons which carry a positive charge. The ejection of protons from the sun on a continuous basis must cause the sun to be charged progressively more negatively. The creation of the solar wind could not occur before the sun accumulated enough mass and heat to start the fusion reaction needed to to keep it functioning as a star. The material that formed the sun would have been electrically neutral before the sun existed so gravity would have caused the sun's material to aggregate until fusion could take place. This example offers a possible mechanism for the creation of electrostatic charges by stars sometime after the universe started.

Conclusion
This essay oiffers a possible reason for the continued expansion of the universe - the mutual repulsion of similarly electrostatically charged bodies. It does not depend upon any mysterious dark energy or dark matter. It just uses known facts which can be checked with relatively simple apparatus.
In another essay I provide an explanation of planetary magnetic fields which depend wholly on the effects of the interaction of a positively charged solar wind and the rotation of planets with atmospheres. This essay is based on similar basic knowledge of the interactions between objects affected by static electricity and gravity.

Updated 07/07/2005