One of the current big controversies in cosmological physics is why there is stronger gravitational attraction in our universe than can be explained by the presence of observable mass. This is most readily seen by the observation of galaxy size and rotation rates. I’ve seen a lot of discussion how to explain this, but most researchers seem to accept that there has to be some kind of new but undetectable “dark” matter. as a consequence, there has been a lot of effort toward detecting new particles not covered by the Standard Model, such as WIMPs, axions, and other more exotic things. There has even speculation that the equations of gravity start to break down at galactic scales, but all of these ideas have met their demise so far–the LHC appears to have ruled out reasonable WIMP masses, the experimental evidence for gravitational corrections is non-existent, and the experimental existence for axions and other conceptual particles is currently non-existent as well. So far we have no evidence of any new physics or particles that might explain the additional gravitational force we observe. Could the observations somehow be wrong? Right now, no researcher appears to think that–it appears incontrovertible that observational measurements show that something is going on that we don’t understand.
The interesting thing about the dark matter controversy is how the gravitational anomaly shows up at galactic scales, but local gravitational measurements as well as orbital variations and even gravitational lensing measurements show no detectable error or variation in Einstein’s general relativity equations. The explanation has to come from the vast scales present at galactic scale but not at planetary or smaller scales. For this reason, physicists have determined that there must be some mass (a lot of it!) that is undetectable–we can’t see it, it doesn’t interact with (for example) photons headed toward our observatories.
I think there is another explanation that I have not seen anyone consider.
I wondered if the fact that we live, interact, and observe within a 3D hypersurface slice of 4D spacetime at any given moment might alter our expectation of cosmological observation effects. Some initial analysis does indeed suggest that this could be an alternative explanation for the gravitational force effects we see. I call this 3D hypersurface slice the Activation Layer, and in previous posts I show several consequences of this thinking, such as how the Activation Layer affects Big Bang expansion rates (see https://agemozphysics.com/2024/11/27/cosmological-implications-of-the-activation-layer-3d-hypersurface-in-4d-spacetime/) and how it predicts special relativity postulates (see https://agemozphysics.com/2024/12/01/special-relativity-and-the-3d-hypersurface-activation-layer/ and https://agemozphysics.com/2024/10/09/the-activation-layer-our-3d-hypersurface-within-4d-spacetime-does-not-violate-special-relativity/) and so on.
I think it would also have to alter the observable gravitational effects on a galactic scale.
There is a critical difference between the traditional 4D spacetime perspective of the Big Bang and the Activation Layer theory that I am proposing. In that previously mentioned post about Activation Layer cosmological implications, I show the difference, and you can see it in the figure:
The difference requires a creative imagination to see it: in the traditional spherical Big Bang, there is no curvature unless there is nearby mass (mass/energy tensor is not zero). But the Activation Layer Big Bang will have curvature even when there is no mass present, because the hypersurface is a spherical surface in 4D spacetime expanding about the initial singularity point. This curvature will cause the appearance of gravitational effects even where no mass is present! (It should be noted that while gravitation takes effect within the Activation Layer, the math of general relativity allows for the effect of masses outside of it–see https://agemozphysics.com/2025/02/13/general-relativity-and-the-3d-hypersurface-activation-layer/). It will show up at galactic scales, but will scale down to presumably undetectable levels at local distances. Is the Activation Layer Big Bang curvature sufficient to explain the extra gravitation we observe? I will attempt some analysis here. But there’s no question that the Activation Layer curvature is going to have some effect not directly explained by general relativity.
Maybe we are looking in the wrong place for the cause of the extra gravitational effects we see. The Activation Layer view of the universe provides a geometrical explanation that does not require the alteration of the laws of gravity or the presence of exotic particles for which we have yet to see any evidence.
Agemoz
Tags: general relativity, general-relativity, physics, quantum, science, special relativity, special-relativity
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