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yanniru
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Last year I indicated on this forum that some work by Reginald Cahill of Flinders University in Australia had found that Newton's theory of gravity, and Einstein's as well since it is tied to Newton's in the low velocity limit, were both limited to occasions of spherical symmetry. He found extra NGT terms. These terms explained why dark matter is not observed in spherical galaxies, but is observed in spiral galaxies using ordinary symmetric Newtonian theory. The bottomline of Cahill's result is that dark matter does not exist. It's just a theoretical fluke.
The responses on this forum could not decide if Cahill was a fluke or the theory was.
Now I have found, again on the Cornell archives, a recent paper by John Moffat of the University of Toronto, who independently claims that NGT eliminates the need for both dark energy and dark matter. Of course that raises the problem of how the universe could be flat, as established by many independent observations. But nevertheless, we now have two physicists arriving at the same conclusions, more or less, without referencing the other, seemingly independent of the other. I do not understand GR math. So I hope someone else could review these papers for us. The abstracts for the archives and links to the papers follow:
Modified Gravitational Theory as an Alternative to Dark Energy and Dark Matter
Authors: J. W. Moffat
Comments: 17 pages, no figures, LaTex file
The problem of explaining the acceleration of the expansion of the universe and the observational and theoretical difficulties associated with dark matter and dark energy are discussed. The possibility that Einstein gravity does not correctly describe the large-scale structure of the universe is considered and an alternative gravity theory is proposed as a possible resolution to the problems.
Full-text: PostScript, PDF, or Other formats
http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0403266
Gravitation, the 'Dark Matter' Effect and the Fine Structure Constant
Authors: Reginald T. Cahill (Flinders University)
Comments: 11 pages, 3 eps figures
Subj-class: General Physics
Gravitational anomalies such as the mine/borehole g anomaly, the near-flatness of the spiral galaxy rotation-velocity curves, currently interpreted as a `dark matter' effect, the absence of that effect in ordinary elliptical galaxies, and the ongoing problems in accurately determining Newton's gravitational constant G_N are explained by a generalisation of the Newtonian theory of gravity to a fluid-flow formalism with one new dimensionless constant. By analysing the borehole and spiral galaxy data this constant is shown to be the fine structure constant alpha=1/137. This formalism then also explains the cause of the long-standing uncertainties in G_N and leads to the introduction of a fundamental gravitational constant G not = G_N with value G=(6.6526 +/- 0.013)x 10^-11 m^2s^{-2}kg^{-1}. The occurrence of alpha implies that space has a quantum structure, and we have the first evidence of quantum gravity effects.
Full-text: PostScript, PDF, or Other formats
http://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0401047
The responses on this forum could not decide if Cahill was a fluke or the theory was.
Now I have found, again on the Cornell archives, a recent paper by John Moffat of the University of Toronto, who independently claims that NGT eliminates the need for both dark energy and dark matter. Of course that raises the problem of how the universe could be flat, as established by many independent observations. But nevertheless, we now have two physicists arriving at the same conclusions, more or less, without referencing the other, seemingly independent of the other. I do not understand GR math. So I hope someone else could review these papers for us. The abstracts for the archives and links to the papers follow:
Modified Gravitational Theory as an Alternative to Dark Energy and Dark Matter
Authors: J. W. Moffat
Comments: 17 pages, no figures, LaTex file
The problem of explaining the acceleration of the expansion of the universe and the observational and theoretical difficulties associated with dark matter and dark energy are discussed. The possibility that Einstein gravity does not correctly describe the large-scale structure of the universe is considered and an alternative gravity theory is proposed as a possible resolution to the problems.
Full-text: PostScript, PDF, or Other formats
http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0403266
Gravitation, the 'Dark Matter' Effect and the Fine Structure Constant
Authors: Reginald T. Cahill (Flinders University)
Comments: 11 pages, 3 eps figures
Subj-class: General Physics
Gravitational anomalies such as the mine/borehole g anomaly, the near-flatness of the spiral galaxy rotation-velocity curves, currently interpreted as a `dark matter' effect, the absence of that effect in ordinary elliptical galaxies, and the ongoing problems in accurately determining Newton's gravitational constant G_N are explained by a generalisation of the Newtonian theory of gravity to a fluid-flow formalism with one new dimensionless constant. By analysing the borehole and spiral galaxy data this constant is shown to be the fine structure constant alpha=1/137. This formalism then also explains the cause of the long-standing uncertainties in G_N and leads to the introduction of a fundamental gravitational constant G not = G_N with value G=(6.6526 +/- 0.013)x 10^-11 m^2s^{-2}kg^{-1}. The occurrence of alpha implies that space has a quantum structure, and we have the first evidence of quantum gravity effects.
Full-text: PostScript, PDF, or Other formats
http://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0401047