One of the first truly original ideas in Physics in a long time. I hope he progresses quickly. I'm very intrigued. I didn't want to get bogged down this morning, lots to do, but I couldn't put this down!
Good stuff!
A new challenge to the existence of dark matter
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Aug 22, 2017
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I should say that, although I rarely agree with RPaulB, this is the sort of thing he is often keen on. I can't recall exactly which alternate theory to GR he currently favours, but it is one of them.
I should say that my best guess is that this will lead to nothing. There is one possible problem with any such idea: currently the Universe balances very nicely: the matter, dark matter and dark energy add up to the critical density which, in my simplistic way of thinking of it, means the Universe has close to zero net energy. This is a very desirable property, as making zero energy does not break energy conservation, while any more does!
The problem is that if you do away with dark matter, it no longer adds up. You would need another source of energy associated with the theory (like dark energy version B) that would have almost the same energy as the dark matter has. Best guess is that this is unlikely to add up.
I hear that Erik Verlinde's ideas as to how gravity and dark energy behave on large scales so as to explain galaxy dynamics without dark matter are being treated seriously. It seems to be early days yet - he has not achieved better tested results than MOND which lost credence due to the bullet cluster, but he asserts that his hypothesis, while approximating MOND in some scenarios might just behave differently enough in others to explain the appearance of dark matter moving independently of ordinary matter.
See https://www.quantamagazine.org/erik-verlindes-gravity-minus-dark-matter-20161129/
or video:
https://iai.tv/video/newtons-fall