Virtual gravitational dipoles: The key for the understanding of the Universe?

TL;DR

This paper explores the hypothesis that antimatter may have negative gravitational mass, leading to a cyclic universe model and potential explanations for dark matter and dark energy, challenging conventional cosmological theories.

Contribution

It proposes that virtual gravitational dipoles in the quantum vacuum could explain cosmic phenomena and supports a cyclic universe without initial singularity or inflation.

Findings

Virtual gravitational dipoles could account for dark matter effects.

Antimatter with negative gravitational charge implies a cyclic universe.

Potential alternative to inflationary cosmology.

Abstract

Before the end of this decade, three competing experiments (ALPHA, AEGIS and GBAR) will discover if atoms of antihydrogen fall up or down. We wonder what the major changes in astrophysics and cosmology would be if it is experimentally confirmed that antimatter falls upwards. The key point is: If antiparticles have negative gravitational charge, the quantum vacuum, well established in the Standard Model of Particles and Fields, contains virtual gravitational dipoles. The main conclusions are: (1) the physical vacuum enriched with gravitational dipoles is compatible with a cyclic universe alternatively dominated by matter and antimatter, without initial singularity and without need for cosmic inflation; (2) the virtual dipoles might explain the phenomena usually attributed to dark matter and dark energy. While what we have presented is still far from a complete theory, hopefully it can stimulate a radically different and potentially important way of thinking.