Can Effects of Dark Matter be Explained by the Turbulent Flow of Spacetime?

TL;DR

This paper proposes that the effects attributed to dark matter, such as galaxy rotation curves and gravitational lensing, could be explained by turbulent flows of spacetime, offering an alternative to dark matter particles.

Contribution

It introduces a novel hypothesis that spacetime turbulence and bulk flow can account for dark matter phenomena, challenging the need for unseen particles.

Findings

Order of magnitude calculations support the turbulent flow hypothesis.

The model can potentially explain gravitational lensing around globular clusters.

Provides an alternative explanation for galaxy rotation curves.

Abstract

For the past forty years the search for dark matter has been one of the primary foci of astrophysics, although there has yet to be any direct evidence for its existence (Porter et al. 2011). Indirect evidence for the existence of dark matter is largely rooted in the rotational speeds of stars within their host galaxies, where, instead of having a ~ r^1/2 radial dependence, stars appear to have orbital speeds independent of their distance from the galactic center, which led to proposed existence of dark matter (Porter et al. 2011; Peebles 1993). We propose an alternate explanation for the observed stellar motions within galaxies, combining the standard treatment of a fluid-like spacetime with the possibility of a "bulk flow" of mass through the Universe. The differential "flow" of spacetime could generate vorticies capable of providing the "perceived" rotational speeds in excess of those predicted by Newtonian mechanics. Although a more detailed analysis of our theory is forthcoming, we find a crude "order of magnitude" calculation can explain this phenomena. We also find that this can be used to explain the graviational lensing observed around globular clusters like "Bullet Cluster".