Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Rest of us Normal Matter People

Most recent answer: 10/31/2013

Q:
I recently saw a documentary on physics,specifically exploring the Higgs Boson as well as dark matter. Two ideas in the show seemed related. 1. 5/6 of matter is dark matter in the universe. 2. It may be that there is more than one type Higgs Boson,and there may need to be 6 to explain dark matter. My question is could Dark matter be the actual matter in 6 separate dimensions and a Boson is needed for each dimension? I know that this seems simplistic but sometimes it's the simple answer in the end. Thanks for indulging me. Take Care- Ty
- Ty Livingston (age 50)
Miles City, MT
A:

I think your number is off just a little. The current standard, as quoted in    is:

" Roughly 68% the Universe is dark energy. Dark matter makes up about 27%. The rest - everything on Earth, everything ever observed with all of our instruments, all normal matter - adds up to less than 5% of the universe."    So we normal people and other things are a minority. Of just the matter part, we make up a little less than 1/6. So that makes the number 6 seem a bit less special.

Nevertheless  you bring up some relevant points.   Yes, there may be more that one Higgs type particle.  People are still hard at work at CERN trying to verify this point.  There is nothing in current theory that prohibits this, in fact some theorists would be pleased to see them.  As to your conjecture about the number 6,  I don't see it fitting in to current theories.

Extra dimensions however are rife in some theorists' speculations.   A favorite of 'string theorists' is a 10 dimensional theory.   We can't see these extra dimensions because they are tiny and all curled up. 

LeeH

 

 

 


(published on 10/31/2013)