Wednesday, July 24, 2019

angular momentum - If dark matter only interacts with gravity, why doesn't it all clump together in a single point?


I'm a complete layperson. As I understand, dark matter theoretically only interacts with the gravitational force, and doesn't interact with the other three fundamental forces: weak nuclear force, strong nuclear force, and electromagnetism.


Those are my understandings going in. If I'm wrong, please correct me. I've done some googling, and I haven't found anything confirming or denying that dark matter is affected by either of the fundamental nuclear forces.


So since dark matter only interacts with gravity, what causes any dark matter particle to be repelled from another? If they can pass freely through each other, and they are gravitationaly attracted to each other, why don't such particles clump together in a single 'point' in space?


It seems to me that particles occupying a single 'space' are philosophically not distinct particles, but I don't know how actual physics would play into this.


Edit This article, author's credentials unknown, but implicitly claims to be a physicist or astronomer, says "...[P]hysicists generally take all dark matter to be composed of a single type of particle that essentially interacts only through gravity."


Edit 2 The author is this Lisa Randall, "Professor of Science on the physics faculty of Harvard University."



Answer



Great question. Observations show that Dark Matter (DM) only noticeably interacts gravitationally, although it's possible that it may interact in other ways "weakly" (e.g. in the 'WIMP' model --- linked). Everything following has no dependence on whether DM interacts purely/only gravitationally, or just predominantly gravitationally --- so I'll treat it as the former case for convenience.



Observable matter in the universe 'clumps' together tremendously: in gas clouds, stars, planets, disks, galaxies, etc. It does this because of electromagnetic (EM) interactions which are able to dissipate energy. If you roll a ball along a flat surface it will slow down and eventually stop (effectively 'clumping' to the ground), because dissipative forces (friction) are able to transfer its kinetic energy away.


On the other hand, imagine you drill a perfect hole, straight through the center of the Earth, and you drop a ball down it. (Assuming the hole and the earth are perfectly symmetrical...) the ball will just continually oscillate back and forth from each side of the earth to the other --- because of conservation of energy. Just like a frictionless pendulum (no rubbing, no air resistance). This is how dark matter interacts, purely gravitationally. Even if there was no hole through the center of the earth, the DM will just pass straight through and continue to oscillate back and forth, always reaching the same initial height. To zeroth order, dark matter can only 'clump' as much as its initial energy (obtained soon after the big-bang) allows. One example of such a 'clump' is a 'Dark Matter Halo' in which galaxies are embedded. DM Halos are (effectively) always larger than the normal (baryonic) matter inside them --- because the normal matter is able to dissipate energy and collapse farther.


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