The Iceberg Structure Of Matter

The perplexing mystery of the matter in the universe that must exist but which we cannot see or detect can be solved with a little bit of "thinking outside the box", by thinking of matter in terms of an iceberg.

THE MYSTERY OF DARK MATTER

The most perplexing thing about the universe today is probably the mystery of dark matter. This dark matter is matter that we cannot see or detect, except for it's gravitational effect on the matter that we can see.

The idea of dark matter arose due to information about the rotation of our galaxy. Considering the amount of matter our galaxy is observed to contain, and the rate that it rotates, it should fly apart by centrifugal force. But yet it doesn't. Our galaxy rotates as if it had several times the amount of matter that we can see and detect. Scientists concluded that there must be a form of matter that we cannot see but which has gravitational force. No direct trace of this "dark matter" has ever been found.

Maybe what we should consider is the way that we detect matter. Most of the matter that we deal with is in the form of atoms. The nucleus of an atom has a positive electric charge while the electrons in orbitals have a negative electric charge. This holds the atom together and gives it an overall neutral charge.

The only way that we can detect anything is by it's effect on electrons. This is true of our eyes and all of our equipment, such as photography. The energy of an electromagnetic wave, such as light or a radio wave, knocks an electron out of the outermost orbital of an atom. This creates an electric current, which is where we get our information.

This might provide an answer to the dark matter mystery. We presume that most matter is in the form of atoms because that is what we can see and detect. Maybe this dark matter mystery is telling us something about ourselves. That we have too much confidence in what our senses tell us. 

We presume that we have an unbiased view of the universe, that we can completely rely on our measurements and observations. What if we don't have an unbiased view of the universe? What if we are part of the universe and see it as we do not only because of what it is but also because of what we are?

Ice is a little bit lighter than liquid water, which is why it floats. When there is an iceberg in the ocean most of it is under the water. This is why icebergs are dangerous to ships. The visible portion that is above the ocean is only a small portion of the total and is referred to as "the tip of the iceberg".

Suppose that matter works in the same way. Just as we cannot see the majority of the iceberg that is underwater maybe we cannot see the majority of matter because of our complete dependence on electrons to detect it. We presume that most matter is in the form of atoms because that is what we can see and detect.

What if our familiar atomic matter is just the "tip of the iceberg"? Of all the matter in the universe only a fraction of it might have ended up as part of the structure of an atom, and this is the only matter that we can see and detect. The protons and neutrons in the nucleus of an atom are composed of quarks, up quarks and down quarks.

Quarks have electric charges in thirds. An up quark has a charge of +2/3 and a down quark has a charge of -1/3. Two up quarks and a down quark make a proton, with a net charge of +1. Two down quarks and an up quark make a neutron, with a net charge of zero.

A quark by itself has never been detected. But is this because they really don't exist by themselves, or is it because we couldn't detect them if they do because we are utterly dependent on electrons which have what we could call a "whole" electric charge? We know that neutrons don't last outside the nucleus. A neutron on it's own will break down into a proton and a neutron in an average of about 15 minutes.

Since we are so dependent on electrons, both in our vision and our technology, couldn't it be that we can only detect matter that has what we percieve to be a "whole" electric charge, of either -1 or +1 or zero? There could be a whole universe of matter, including solitary quarks, that we cannot detect because we cannot "tune in" to it's electric charge?

What if we had a radio that could only receive one frequency. We could listen to the station at that frequency but would be unable to listen to any other station. This is what our view of the universe is like, due to our utter dependence on electrons. We can see only our familiar few percent of all matter. The electromagnet spectrum is entirely based on "whole" electric charges.

This explains what "dark matter" is. A related mystery is the existence of supermassive black holes. This means black holes that could not possibly form by the accretion of matter. First let's review how black holes usually form.

THE FORMATION OF BLACK HOLES

We know how black holes form. A star is an equilibrium between the outward force of the radiation released by fusion in it's interior and the inward pull of gravity. The star forms in the first place when enough matter is pulled together by it's mutual gravity to overcome the electron repulsion between atoms and crunch smaller atoms together into larger ones by the force of gravity. The new larger atom has less overall energy than the smaller atoms that were crunched together to form it. The excess energy is released as radiation, and that is why stars shine.

As the star proceeds with fusing lighter atoms into successively heavier ones it eventually runs out of fuel, because the ordinary fusion process only goes as far as iron. This upsets the equilibrium of the star by removing the outward force of the radiation, so that the inward force of gravity takes over.

The vast majority of an atom is empty space. What happens next, at least in some stars, is that the pressure of gravity completely crushes the atoms. The electrons of an atom are crunched into it's protons to form neutrons, this also happens in ordinary fusion. It is known as "K-capture".

The result is a "neutron star", where all atoms have been crushed into neutrons. Although it is technically not actually a star because fusion is no longer taking place. A star the size of the sun might collapse into a neutron star the size of a city. This brings about extreme density of matter and a spoonful of neutron star material might have a mass of billions of tons. Some neutron stars do release energy because they are still shrinking.

But this collapse of atoms into closely-packed neutrons greatly increases the gravitational attraction within the mass. This may lead, in certain stars, to a further gravitational collapse. The structure of matter may collapse further, so that there is no discernible structure of matter left at all. This is what we refer to as a "black hole".

Any matter that gets pulled into the black hole becomes part of it, having it's atomic structure utterly crushed. There is no possible exit. The gravity of the black hole would likely tear any nearby matter apart before inexorably pulling it in. This is due to tidal forces, the gravity on the matter on the side closest to the black hole would be greater than the force on the far side of the matter, and this would tear the matter apart.

THE MYSTERY OF SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLES

It has long been known that this is how black holes come to be, the accretion of matter by gravity that typically begins with the gravitational collapse of a star, after the star's fusion process has ceased.

But more recently, supermassive black holes have been found that scientists agree could not possibly have been formed by this usual accretion of matter. Furthermore it has been determined that these mysterious supermassive black holes have existed since near the beginning of the universe, before much nuclear fusion in stars even had a chance to take place.

So a major question about the universe today is how these supermassive black holes, each with billions of times the mass of the sun, could possibly have formed.

This could be explained by our iceberg structure of matter. It might also be expressed as pyramid. Our familiar visible matter, made of atoms, is at the top of the pyramid or iceberg. Below that is the matter that never ended up as part of the structure of atoms. Because this matter does not have a "whole" electric charge we cannot see or detect it except for it's gravitational effect.

Immediately below the visible matter is matter with structure, such as quarks or combinations of quarks, but not having the "whole" electric charge that we, using our electrons, can detect. At the bottom of the pyramid would be the dense concentrations of matter without internal structure, such as these supermassive black holes.

It works in a similar way to the electromagnetic spectrum. We know that the visible light that we can see is only a small portion of the entire electromagnetic spectrum. Although we are able to detect the rest of the spectrum through our equipment, because it is all based on "whole" electric charge. So why couldn't the matter that we can see be just a small portion of a "spectrum" of matter that we can't see but can detect by it's gravitational effect?