"Bruce Scott TOK" <Use-Author-Supplied-Address-Header@[127.1]> wrote in
message news:200608241124.k7OBOTo2020397@ipp.mpg.de...
Thanks to Sam W for reminding me about Sean Carrol's websites...
A great introductory (nontechnical) one is here:
The Preposterous Universe
http://pancake.uchicago.edu/~carroll/preposterous.html
(Links to his classroom version are at the bottom)
Herein, he makes a very important observation about the difference
between dark matter and dark energy, and the luminiferous aether
invoked
in the 19th Century:
``These dark components are exactly the opposite of the "ether"
that
was popular a century ago: everyone expected ether to exist but
nobody could find evidence of it, whereas nobody expected dark
matter or dark energy, but we found them despite ourselves.''
Remember that when talking to people trying to convince you dark
energy
is just aether.
Also, he has a very succinct explanation about the difference between
dark matter and dark energy... the matter clumps to itself, the
energy
does not. The matter is observable on galactic scales, the energy is
smoothly ditributed (treatable as spatially homogeneous) affects on
the
very largest ("global") scale.
All of it is forced by observations and was not thought up a priori.
http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0607411
"Modifying gravity with the Aether: an alternative to Dark Matter"
We have to remain skeptical about the recent "dark matter" find until
HEP also sees some evidence for it. Suppose "dark matter" particles are
never found; then what? There definitely seems to be something there
though that gravity is the strongest force affecting it. And I expected
it to track real matter more closely. So this new discovery is quite a
stunning development that the dark component can become that seperated
from real matter.
FrediFizzx
Quantum Vacuum Charge papers;
http://www.vacuum-physics.com/QVC/quantum_vacuum_charge.pdf
or postscript
http://www.vacuum-physics.com/QVC/quantum_vacuum_charge.ps
http://www.arxiv.org/abs/physics/0601110
http://www.vacuum-physics.com
.
