Astrophysicists at the University of Nottingham suspect that a “fifth force”, mediated by a hypothetical particle called a symmetron, may be at work in space.
The Lambda cold dark matter model (ΛCDM) is the current standard model used to explain cosmology and understand the universe.. However, there are several puzzling scientific challenges to this model that contradict its predictions.
To explain what apparently doesn’t make sense, scientists proposed the existence of a new “fifth force”. This could be acting in space.
Aneesh Naik and Clare Burrage, researchers at the University of Nottingham, published a new study in the ArXiv Prepress Server. There they try to reconcile this gap by suggesting that the smaller galaxies could be adjusting to invisible “walls”.
These supposed walls would be created by a hypothetical new class of particles called symmetrons . It is a proposal that could rewrite the laws of astrophysics.
The “Fifth Force”: Theory in Detail
The standard ΛCDM theory suggests that the universe is made up of three key components: the cosmological constantadded by Einstein to support general relativity; cold dark matter that moves slowly through space without radiation; Y general matter with whom we interact on a daily basis.
That theory proposes that the smaller galaxies should be pulled by the gravity of the larger host galaxies. This would make their orbits erratic, but scientists have not been able to verify this in the real world.
To address this curious gap between theory and observation, known as the “satellite disk problem” or the “satellite plane problem,” scientists have come up with many possible explanations.
Now, the pair of researchers from the University of Nottingham may have come up with a more accurate explanation. As they suggest, the “fifth force” could guide these small “satellite” galaxies into strange orbits around the larger galaxies.
Thus they would end up arranged in thin planes, or discs, almost like the rings of Saturn, according to reports Vice.
The duo presented what they believe to be “the first potential ‘new physics’ explanation for the observed satellite planes that does not dispense with dark matter”. Referring to the unidentified substance that makes up most of the mass of the universe.
Symmetrons could explain dark matter
Specifically, speculative particles known as symmetrons were used by researchers to explain the gaps in our knowledge of the Cosmos.
Symmetrons could generate this “force” to form “domain walls”or limits in space, while explaining dark matter.
“We know that we need new particles because we have dark matter and dark energy. So we suspect we’re going to need to add new particles to our standard model to account for those things,” Aneesh Naik, lead author of the preprint study, told Vice.
Although the theory is still being worked out, it could explain small galaxies developing disks around larger host galaxies. That has already been seen in these synchronized orbits around our own galaxy, the Milky Way. As well as its closest galactic neighbors, Andromeda and Centaurus A.
According to the researchers, the symmetrons could exist in groups of “different polar states”, in turn forming invisible walls around them.
They also claim that there is a 50% chance that different regions will adopt different values for their symmetries. This could explain the differences that some larger galaxies present in the smaller galaxies that orbit them.
theory to test
As interesting as the new theory may be, there are still many questions. Naik and her colleague Clare Burrage have a lot of work ahead of them to consolidate it.
For example, and first of all, if you want to prove that there are invisible walls in space, you would have to prove that symmetrons exist.
Perhaps new space instruments like the James Webb telescope, by looking at parts of the early universe, could teach us more about these new particles and the organization they bring to the universe.