What is gravity without mass? Both Newton’s revolutionary laws explaining the universal effect and Einstein’s suggestion of pitted space-time, we thought that gravity belonged only to the realm of matter. Now, a surprising new study suggests that gravity could exist without mass, conveniently eliminating the need for dark matter, one of the most elusive substances in our universe.

Dark matter is a hypothetical invisible mass believed to make up 85 percent of the total mass of the universe. Originally developed to explain how galaxies stick together during high-speed rotation, yet no direct observation of this material has prompted physicists to come up with all kinds of ideas to avoid using this elusive material as a way to fill in gaps in existing theories.

The latest proposal along these lines comes from astrophysicist Richard Liu of the University of Alabama in Huntsville; He proposes that instead of dark matter connecting galaxies and other objects, the universe may contain thin, shell-like layers of “topological defects.” gravity without any main mass.

Lieu began by trying to find another solution to Einstein’s field equations, which related the curvature of space-time to the presence of matter within it.

As Einstein described in his 1915 theory of general relativity, space-time curves around bundles of matter and radiation flows in the universe depending on their energy and momentum. This energy is of course related to mass in Einstein’s famous equation: E=mc².

So the mass of an object is related to its energy, which distorts space-time, and this distortion of space-time is what Einstein described as gravity; It’s a bit more complicated than Newton’s 17th-century prediction of gravity as a force between two objects. stack. . In other words, gravity seems inextricably linked to mass.

According to Liu, this is not the case.

In his work, Lieut undertook to solve a simplified version of Einstein’s field equations that takes into account the finite gravitational force in the absence of any detectable mass. His efforts, he says, “stem from frustration with the current situation, namely the idea that dark matter exists despite the absence of any direct evidence for an entire century.”

The Lie solution consists of shell-shaped topological defects that can form in very compact regions of space with very high matter density. These concentric clusters of shells contain a thin layer of positive mass sandwiched inside an outer layer of negative mass. The two masses cancel each other out, so the total mass of the two layers is exactly zero. However, when a star lies above this shell, it is subjected to a large gravitational force that pulls it towards the center of the shell.

“The claim of my paper is that bullets have no mass, at least, which it assumes,” Lieu says. If these contradictory hypotheses have any weight, “then there is no need to continue this seemingly endless search for dark matter,” Lieu adds.

So the next question is how it is possible to verify or refute through observations the shells proposed by Lieut.

“The increasing frequency of observations of ring and shell galaxy formations in the universe suggests the type of source proposed here,” Lieu writes in his paper. Although he admits that the solution he proposes is “extremely thought-provoking” and cannot refute the dark matter hypothesis on its own.

“It can be an interesting mathematical exercise at best,” Liu concludes. “But this is the first [математичний] Proof that gravity can exist without mass.” The study was published on: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.