back to article LIGO team may have found dark matter

Scientists think the recent discovery of gravitational waves observed from the collision of two black holes may have also detected signatures of the astrophysics mystery of dark matter. Scientists at Johns Hopkins university behind the September 2015 discovery by Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) wrote …

  1. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

    Exciting news!

  2. Pascal Monett Silver badge
    Happy

    Can't wait to see what will come of this.

    1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge

      More hoies, I reckon.

      It would be amazing to see that most of the universe is actually a gas of black holes.

      Not sure if this will hold up as we need some "cold" and some "warm" dark matter to match simulations.

  3. Jimmy2Cows Silver badge

    Sample size?

    The rate in which such primordial black holes would form binaries and collide matches with LIGO's observations, the scientists say.

    With only two confirmed LIGO observations of gravitational waves, it seems a bit early to be making this assertion.

    Not saying they're wrong or right, just commentarding on the apparent number of data points they've used to draw this conclusion. Maybe they more data they've not made public yet...?

    1. TeeCee Gold badge

      Re: Sample size?

      Presumably that's why this is only a "plausibility argument".

      (I'm guessing that's much the same thing as a plausible argument, but translated into American Engrish.)

      1. DanDanDan

        Re: Sample size?

        It's an argument that something is plausible, not the argument which is plausible. There's a subtle difference.

        1. I am the liquor

          Re: Sample size?

          "It's an argument that something is plausible, not the argument which is plausible. There's a subtle difference."

          So it's a plausible plausibility argument.

          1. Mark 85
            Coat

            Re: Sample size?

            So it's a plausible plausibility argument.

            That's entirely plausible.

            1. DanDanDan

              Re: Sample size?

              A plausibly plausible plausibility argument?

    2. banalyzer

      Re: Sample size?

      also there may well be a hypothesis regarding black holes or dark matter that matches the data so far. This would make for a plausible theory for further tests to be carried out on.

      What they have done is to propose a path of research, not state that this must be true.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Sample size?

      Hey, they have a rate. And with that rate you may extrapolate. Woohoo!

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Plausible/worth

    As Dark Matter is pretty much defined by the fact that it only interacts with baryonic matter via gravity then it is plausible that it might be detected by LIGO. However, whilst all we know about DM so far has been gained from astronomical observations on very large scales, which means very low-frequency time-period data, LIGO might be able to add to our rather minimal definition of DM by capturing relatively high-frequency time-period data.

  5. WalterAlter
    Holmes

    Bad Science- Blacker than Any Hole

    Full paper with links to references here: http://www.sjcrothers.plasmaresources.com/

    There has been a deliberate suppression of scientific truth by the community of physicists and astronomers concerning the black hole and the big bang. I bring you free access to original papers in the hope that this fraud can be exposed and physics restored to a rational search for knowledge. The black hole has no foundation in theory whatsoever. Neither Newton's theory nor Einstein's theory predict it. In fact, both theories preclude it, contrary to what the relativists claim.

    The so-called "Schwarzschild" solution is not due to Karl Schwarzschild at all. The experts have either not read Schwarzschild's 1916 memoir or have otherwise ignored it. Go here to get Schwarzschild's original paper, in English. The so-called "Schwarzschild" solution is due to David Hilbert, itself a corruption of a solution first derived by Johannes Droste in May 1916, whose paper has also been buried or ignored at the convenience of the experts. It appears that the experts have not read Hilbert either. Go here to get a copy of Hilbert's erroneous derivation, in English. Hilbert's mistake spawned the black hole and the community of theoretical physicists continues to elaborate on this falsehood, with a hostile shouting down of any and all voices challenging them. Schwarzschild's solution has no black hole, and neither does Droste's solution. And while you're at it you might as well go here to get a copy of Marcel Brillouin's 1923 paper, in English, in which he demonstrates that the black hole is nonsense. Brillouin's paper has also been ignored.

    The 'experts' are always quick to conveniently brand anyone who questions the black hole as a crackpot. Unfortunately for the experts that does not alter the facts. The experts must also include Schwarzschild himself as a crank since his paper invalidates the black hole outright, as does Brillouin's, and Droste's. They must also label Einstein a crackpot, because Einstein always rejected the idea of the black hole, asserting in his research papers and other writings that it is not physical, and that singularities in his gravitational field nullify the theory of General Relativity.

    It is also commonly held by experts, for example, Hawking and Ellis, Misner, Thorne and Wheeler, S. Chandrasekhar, that the Michell-Laplace dark body is a kind of black hole, and that black holes can be components of binary systems and that black holes can collide and merge. These claims are patently false. Go here for a copy of G. C. McVittie's conclusive arguments which invalidate these ridiculous claims. So if you are a scientific person you will read Schwarzschild's paper, and those of Droste, Hilbert, Brillouin, and McVittie. You have no legitimate excuse not to, as they are given to you herein. This is not a question of historical priority, as the relativist is apt to claim when confronted with reality, but one of fundamental science.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Bad Science- Blacker than Any Hole

      Dude, it's not all theoretical any more. We now have a number of actual observations which are most easily explained by the action of said holes. If you take them away, you must then explain those phenomena in some other way.

      Specifically, some of the points are:

      Anomalous stellar motions near the putative supermassive black hole in our own galaxy.

      Very odd light curves coming from binaries like Cygnus X-1.

      The present discovery of very strong grav waves.

      Care to take a shot?

      1. WalterAlter

        Re: Bad Science- Blacker than Any Hole

        I'll take a shot at pointing you to the link at the start of my comment where you can actually email Stephen Crothers himself and expect a reply from him. He is very approachable and will answer any question you might have. I would suggest that you read the article at the link for comprehension first.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Bad Science- Blacker than Any Hole

          Here's a thought. You could take that shot by theorizing right here on El Reg! If what you say intrigues me in the slightest, you may be assured I will dutifully follow up.

          Until then, I have important work to do...

          1. WalterAlter

            Re: Bad Science- Blacker than Any Hole

            You just continue on being your offhandedly dismissive Oblomov arrogant self then and I'll continue being the Register's Norwegian death metal Tinker Bell.

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: Bad Science- Blacker than Any Hole

              > "You just continue on being your offhandedly dismissive Oblomov arrogant self..."

              Tsk. How does pointing out physical flaws in your stance qualify as "dismissive"? I flat out asked you to put up or shut up, and you directed me to a conspiracy link! Is that all you got?

              But hey, at least I learned a new word: "Oblomov." Yes, yes I can see myself as a dissipated, arrogant and lazy ruling-class type. Unfortunately, the rest of the world refuses to play along!

    2. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
      Facepalm

      Re: Bad Science- Blacker than Any Hole

      Trolling for fake controversy.

      Pretending that mathematical solutions could be subject to some kind of "conspiracy of silence" or that it matters who wrote which paper when and whether there were errors in the initial version or not. Just compute it by yourself if you must. It's math! (not as if most of the commenters would do that but grad students sure can).

      singularities in his gravitational field nullify the theory of General Relativity

      No they just mean that GR is not applicable in every situation. That's clearly a "no shit, Sherlock" kind of brainwave.

      Now fuck off.

      I'll continue being the Register's Norwegian death metal Tinker Bell.

      More like the tinfoil brigade cavalry.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Bad Science- Blacker than Any Hole

      Do you argue this fervently about your miracle homeopathic remedies? Long live pathological science (not really, it does in the end directly affect our standard of living).

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pathological_science

  6. Louis Savain

    LIGO is the biggest scam of the 21st century. You people will recoil in absolute horror when the truth comes out.

    http://rebelscience.blogspot.com/2016/06/why-steven-carlip-is-mistaken-about.html

    ahahaha...AHAHAHA...ahahahaha...

    1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge

      Oh no the "rebel science" guy is back.

      Someone sure has opened a transdimensional hole to the dimension of stupid, where chaos reigns.

    2. asdf
      Trollface

      >why-steven-carlip-is-mistaken-about.html

      Mistaken about html? Html rules it's all that goddamn unnecessary javascript that is the problem (seriously nearly every web site should degrade gracefully to html only, which is rarely the case).

  7. Chris G

    @ Walter Alter & Louis Savain, I would like to pledge €10 towards sending you both to the location of the nearest alleged black hole so that you can report back on it's reality or lack of it, the truth is out there!

    1. WalterAlter

      Your Euros are going to be museum artifacts in two years, but I'll gladly report gratis that contemporary grant funded science is an Italian mafia without the Italian part. In the meantime this book is available on Amazon for a penny, so I've saved you a batter fried cod and french fried potato dinner.

      "Corrupted Science: Fraud, Ideology and Politics in Science"

      https://www.amazon.com/Corrupted-Science-Fraud-Ideology-Politics/dp/1904332730

      1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge

        Huh, it's on amazon. It must be true!

      2. asdf

        >report gratis that contemporary grant funded science is an Italian mafia without the Italian part.

        And you are the first to run to some new miracle drug when a relative or yourself gets cancer. Yeah the vast majority of those were at least partially funded by government grants or public university research. The private sector tends to mostly focus on lucrative first world problems like Viagra instead of say vaccines (yeah you probably hate those too) without the public money carrot. The big boys are often more into advertising/marketing, mas market production and distribution and greasing the right regulatory wheels than R&D. They often buy small promising drug companies (who often come directly out of public research institutions) for the drugs. Even when the big boys do clinical research studies they often use public universities to do it.

  8. Unicornpiss
    Joke

    Nothing to see here..

    Dark matter is the universe's lookup table for other operations. Normally not meant to be viewed out of context. Do not directly modify this data!

  9. MT Field
    Go

    I think this is tremendous. A fundamentally new way of observing the cosmos and already it has the potential to add seriously to our body of knowledge. Go-LIGO!

  10. zwickygalaxy
    Unhappy

    My father's discovery and coinage of dunkle Materie was rejected by the scientific establishment hostile to any paradigm shift.

    I find it astounding that since my father's publication of his findings in 1933, the greatest institutions, the expenditure of millions and millions, and world renowned scientists, have all failed to detect the mysterious Dark Matter.

    My father used his favorite astronomical instrument, the 18-inch Schmidt telescope, and an incredible work ethic that required cold night after cold night of observation time, tedious analysis of photographic plates without the aid of modern technology and supercomputers, for his work.

    However, I will congratulate the computers of the LIGO team for their hard work.

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