Which came first: the egg or the chicken? Scientists all over the world have been struggling with this simple question for decades. A similar question arises about what was at the very beginning, at the moment of the creation of the Universe. But was it, this creation, or are the universes cyclical or infinite? What is black matter in space and how does it differ from white matter? Throwing aside various kinds of religion, let's try to approach the answers to these questions from a scientific point of view. Over the past few years, scientists have managed to do the unthinkable. Probably for the first time in history, the calculations of theoretical physicists agreed with the calculations of experimental physicists. Several different theories have been presented to the scientific community over the years. More or less accurately, in empirical ways, sometimes quasi-scientifically, however, the theoretical calculated data were nevertheless confirmed by experiments, some even with a delay of more than a dozen years (the Higgs boson, for example).
Dark matter - black energy
There are many such theories, for example: String Theory, Big Bang Theory, Cyclic Universe Theory, Parallel Universe Theory, Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND), F. Hoyle and others. However, at present, the theory of a constantly expanding and evolving Universe is considered generally accepted, the theses of which fit well within the framework of the Big Bang concept. At the same time, quasi-empirically (i.e., empirically, but with large tolerances and based on existing modern theories of the structure of the microcosm), data were obtained that all microparticles known to us make up only 4.02% of the total volume of the entire composition of the Universe. This is the so-called "baryon cocktail", or baryonic matter. However, the bulk of our Universe (more than 95%) are substances of a different plan, different composition and properties. This is the so-called black matter and black energy. They behave differently: they react differently to various kinds of reactions, are not fixed by existing technical means, and exhibit previously unexplored properties. From this we can conclude that either these substances obey other laws of physics (Non-Newtonian physics, a verbal analogue of Non-Euclidean geometry), or our level of development of science and technology is only at the initial stage of its formation.
What are baryons?
According to the current quark-gluon model of strong interactions, there are only sixteen elementary particles (and the recent discovery of the Higgs boson confirms this): six types (flavors) of quarks, eight gluons and two bosons. Baryons are heavy elementary particles with a strong interaction. The most famous of them are quarks, proton and neutron. Families of such substances, differing inspin, masses, their "color", as well as the numbers of "enchantment", "strangeness", are precisely the building blocks of what we call baryonic matter. Black (dark) matter, which makes up 21.8% of the total composition of the Universe, consists of other particles that do not emit electromagnetic radiation and do not react with it in any way. Therefore, for direct observation at least, and even more so for the registration of such substances, it is necessary to first understand their physics and agree on the laws to which they obey. Many modern scientists are currently doing this in research institutes around the world.
The most likely option
What substances are considered as possible? To begin with, it should be noted that there are only two possible options. According to GR and SRT (General and Special Relativity), in terms of composition, this substance can be both baryon and non-baryon dark matter (black). According to the main theory of the Big Bang, any existing matter is represented in the form of baryons. This thesis has been proven with extremely high accuracy. At present, scientists have learned to capture particles formed a minute after the singularity burst, that is, after the explosion of a superdense state of matter, with a body mass tending to infinity and body dimensions tending to zero. The scenario with baryon particles is the most probable, since our Universe consists of them and continues its expansion through them. black matter,according to this assumption, it consists of basic particles generally accepted by Newtonian physics, but for some reason weakly interacting in an electromagnetic way. That is why the detectors do not detect them.
It's not going so smoothly
This scenario suits many scientists, but there are still more questions than answers. If both black and white matter is represented only by baryons, then the concentration of light baryons as a percentage of heavy ones, as a result of primary nucleosynthesis, should be different in the initial astronomical objects of the Universe. And experimentally, the presence in our galaxy of an equilibrium sufficient number of large gravitational objects, such as black holes or neutron stars, has not been revealed to balance the mass of the halo of our Milky Way. However, the same neutron stars, dark galactic halos, black holes, white, black and brown dwarfs (stars in different stages of their life cycle), most likely, are part of the dark matter that dark matter is made of. Black energy can also complement their filling, including predicted hypothetical objects such as preon, quark and Q stars.
Non-baryonic candidates
The second scenario implies a non-baryonic origin. Here, several types of particles can act as candidates. For example, light neutrinos, the existence of which has already been proven by scientists. However, their mass, on the order of one hundredth to oneten-thousandth eV (electron-Volt), practically excludes them from possible particles due to the unattainability of the necessary critical density. But heavy neutrinos, paired with heavy leptons, practically do not manifest themselves in weak interactions under normal conditions. Such neutrinos are called sterile; with their maximum mass of up to one tenth of an eV, they are more likely to be candidates for dark matter particles. Axions and cosmions have been artificially introduced into physical equations to solve problems in quantum chromodynamics and in the standard model. Together with another stable supersymmetric particle (SUSY-LSP), they may well qualify as candidates, since they do not participate in electromagnetic and strong interactions. However, unlike neutrinos, they are still hypothetical, their existence still needs to be proven.
Black matter theory
The lack of mass in the Universe gives rise to different theories on this score, some of which are quite consistent. For example, the theory that ordinary gravity is not able to explain the strange and exorbitantly fast rotation of stars in spiral galaxies. At such speeds, they would simply fly out of it, if not for some kind of holding force, which is not yet possible to register. Other theses of theories explain the impossibility of obtaining WIMPs (massive electroweakly interacting particles-partners of elementary subparticles, supersymmetric and superheavy - that is, ideal candidates) in terrestrial conditions, as they live in n-dimension, which is different from our three-dimensional one. According to the Kaluza-Klein theory, such measurements are not available to us.
Changing Stars
Another theory describes how variable stars and black matter interact with each other. The brightness of such a star can change not only due to metaphysical processes occurring inside (pulsation, chromospheric activity, prominence ejection, spillovers and eclipses in binary star systems, supernova explosion), but also due to the anomalous properties of dark matter.
WARP drive
According to one theory, dark matter can be used as fuel for subspace engines of spacecraft operating on the hypothetical WARP technology (WARP Engine). Potentially, such engines allow the ship to move at speeds exceeding the speed of light. Theoretically, they are able to bend the space in front of and behind the ship and move it in it even faster than an electromagnetic wave accelerates in a vacuum. The ship itself does not accelerate locally - only the spatial field in front of it is bent. Many fantasy stories use this technology, such as the Star Trek saga.
Growth in terrestrial conditions
Attempts to generate and obtain black matter on earth have not yet been successful. Currently, experiments are being carried out at the LHC (Large Andron Collider), exactly where the Higgs boson was first recorded, as well as at other, less powerful ones, including linear colliders in search ofstable, but electromagnetically weakly interacting partners of elementary particles. However, neither photino, nor gravitino, nor higsino, nor sneutrino (neutralino), nor other WIMPs have yet been obtained. According to a preliminary cautious estimate of scientists, to obtain one milligram of dark matter in terrestrial conditions, the equivalent of the energy consumed in the United States during the year is needed.
