Isaac Newton defined his theory of gravity as an instantaneous force in space: A planet instantly feels the influence of another astronomical object, regardless of the distance between them. This direction inspired Einstein to create his famous general theory of relativity, in which gravity turns into a local deformation of space-time.

The principle of locality states that an object is only directly affected by the environment: distant objects cannot communicate instantly, only what is here right now matters. But with the birth and development of quantum mechanics in the last century, physicists have discovered that nonlocal phenomena not only exist, but are fundamental to understanding the nature of reality.

Now a new study recently published by SISSA – Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati Astrophysical Journalsuggests that dark matter, one of the most mysterious components of the universe, interacts nonlocally with gravity. According to the authors, Ph.D. In a study by his students Francesco Benetti and Giovanni Gandolfi and their advisor Andrea Lapi, this discovery could provide a new perspective on the still enigmatic nature of dark matter.

Dark matter is a fundamental component of nature: It’s responsible for forming the structures we see in the universe today, and it surrounds the light matter in galaxies, helping the stars we see in the sky move. But the nature of dark matter, particularly its interaction with gravity in small galaxies, remains a mystery.

“In recent years, the scientific community has made great efforts to understand this mysterious phenomenon, but many questions remain unanswered. A new approach may be needed to study the nature of dark matter and its interaction with gravity,” explain the study’s authors. A new SISSA study fully explored this intriguing pathway.

The study proposes a new model for the nonlocal interaction between dark matter and gravity in the galaxy: “It seems as if all the matter in the universe is telling dark matter in the galaxy how to move,” the authors say.

To model this nonlocality, fractional calculus, a mathematical tool first developed in the 17th century and has recently found application in various fields of physics, was used. The power of this calculation has never been tested by astrophysics before.

“We wondered if fractional calculus was the key to understanding the mysterious nature of dark matter and its interaction with gravity, and surprisingly, the results of experiments on thousands of galaxies of different types showed that the new model more accurately describes the motion of stars.” compared to the standard theory of gravity,” the authors explain.

This nonlocality seems to arise from the collective behavior of dark matter particles in a closed system, and this seems to be especially true for small galaxies. A deeper understanding of this phenomenon may bring us closer to what dark matter really is.

“But many questions still need to be answered,” the authors emphasize. “How exactly does spacelessness arise? What is its significance for larger structures such as galaxy clusters, or for the gravitational lensing phenomenon that allows us to observe distant celestial bodies?”

Also, the Standard Model of cosmology will need to be revised to take this new mechanism into account.

“Further work will be done to examine all of these results and more. We wouldn’t be surprised to see that other important questions about the universe could be resolved with the newly proposed nonlocal approach.”

Progress in understanding the nature of dark matter is an important step towards a better understanding of our universe. Current research continues to provide new perspectives and bring us closer to a comprehensive understanding of the phenomena around us. Source