Dark sector physics and the sterile neutrino

Abstract: And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. (Genesis 1:4)  In this modern era darkness has developed a new meaning. From various problems in cosmology a need has developed to postulate the existence of unknown types of energy and matter from the dark side. These are sought for in the dark sector of particle physics and in the description of the expanding universe acted upon by gravitation. Besides dark energy and dark matter, now a new dark component is being promoted—dark radiation—in the form of a sterile neutrino, which does not interact with electromagnetic radiation or matter except via gravitation. This has come about because of the dichotomy that has occurred when the total mass of the universe has been measured using two quite different methods.  But this new development underlines the problems that have developed in cosmology, especially when the model (paradigm) being considered is a clear departure from the historical account in Genesis.  Article first published by Answers Research Journal 7 (2014):357–361. PDF available here.

Is something dark going on in cosmology? If you thought dark energy and dark matter were hard to understand (and justify), now a new component has been added to the dark side—dark radiation.

When astrophysicists measure the total amount of matter in the universe using different methods, and different data sets, it has been found that they get quite different answers. Continue reading →