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Originally Posted by Hasanuddin
Okay, now let’s talk issues. The first assertion you make is that the Dominium is not a “model.”... I believe there is a little bit of a disagreement between you and I concerning what constitutes a “model.” According to my version of Webster’s New World Dictionary a “model” is:
a) A small representation of a planned or existing object
b) A hypothetical representation or description
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It's not your use of the word model that I'm directing your attention toward—it's the incomplete (or, rather, undeveloped) nature of the model itself. Consider the heliocentric model of the solar system. I quote the wikipedia article on
Heliocentrism:
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Though discussions on the possibility of heliocentrism date to antiquity, it was not until 1,800 years later, however, in the 16th century, that the mathematician and astronomer Copernicus presented a fully predictive mathematical model of a heliocentric system
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and the wikipedia article on
Nicolaus Copernicus:
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Although Greek, Indian and Muslim savants had published heliocentric hypotheses centuries before Copernicus, his publication of a scientific theory of heliocentrism, demonstrating that the motions of celestial objects can be explained without putting the Earth at rest in the center of the universe, stimulated further scientific investigations and became a landmark in the history of modern science that is known as the Copernican Revolution.
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The postulate or hypothesis of heliocentrism was a good one. It was proposed and advocated by many people over more than a thousand years. But, it wasn't until Copernicus made a predictive physical model which explained the observed motion of the planets that the idea was considered to have merit.
This is what I'm encouraging you to do with your model. The idea is to start with the Hypothesis,
- Matter and antimatter repel gravitationally
- The observable universe has equal amounts of matter and antimatter
Then use physics and logic to develop the idea into a model or theory which makes predictions. Then test the predictions with observation and experiment thereby confirming or falsifying the hypothesis. That is the scientific method. I would encourage you to read:
APPENDIX E: Introduction to the Scientific Method and, in particular, the sections on:
Section 4 will explain what a model means in the setting of science.
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Originally Posted by Hasanuddin
I dug a little into your words to find your intent and am alerted by the following phrases. When describing what you consider a good model, you say that it
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goes on to give all formulas necessary to calculate
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And when faulting the current Dominium “hypothetical representations or descriptions” you say
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I don’t see the laws of physics being used
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Combining your two assertions, I need to wonder out-loud whether you are among those who feel that in order to discuss physics that it must be done formulaically or not at all. If that is your bias...
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Physics can be
discussed with or without using formulas and with or without using math—I do it all the time. But, if you want to propose new physics or a new model based on existing physics where this new idea substantially alters the contents and mechanics of the universe then you are going to need to use math and physics in order to make quantitative predictions. Such is unavoidable.
You should recognize this is not a negative or a biased thing. Imagine developing your model to the point of deriving predictions from first principles and being able to say: "According to my deduction, the Virgo cluster should be receding from us at ~1,000 km/sec". It troubles me that you see someone encouraging you to accomplish that as some kind of bias against your idea. Falsifiability has nothing to do with bias, it's just how science works. From the link I gave above on the scientific method:
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Note that the necessity of experiment also implies that a theory must be testable. Theories which cannot be tested, because, for instance, they have no observable ramifications (such as, a particle whose characteristics make it unobservable), do not qualify as scientific theories.
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Originally Posted by Hasanuddin
In defense of the deductive method...
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I would not disagree with using the deductive method in this case. You have no choice but to do so. Your two main postulates are:
- Matter and antimatter repel one another gravitationally
- The visible universe contains equal parts matter and antimatter
Neither of these postulates have been observed, so your reasoning will be deductive by necessity. A question like: "does matter repel antimatter with a force equal to which matter attracts matter?" must be answered by some non-inductive means.
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Originally Posted by Hasanuddin
Cosmology and particle physics are very different from mature and classic disciplines, like Chemistry, because the phenomenological data is newly acquired and surrounded with uncertainty. For example, PAMELA has just reported that positrons are primary cosmic ray particles with energies as high as 2 TeV—that is a brand new phenomenological fact unlike anything observed (or even speculated before) and just released last month.
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Cosmology is undergoing an exciting period of discovery—there is no doubt. I'm not sure, on the other hand, your characterization of PAMELA is quite right. The instrument cannot distinguish between electrons and positrons at 2 TeV. The positron detection energy is 50 MeV - 270 GeV. Where you say: "positrons are primary cosmic ray particles", that doesn't seem to make sense. At normal cosmic ray energies the composition is 90% protons, 9% helium nuclei, 1% electrons, and less than 0.1% positrons.
At higher energies the percentage of positrons will go down. For example, at 1 GeV there are one thousand times more protons as positrons and at 100 GeV there are ten thousand times more (
source: middle of page 4). Positrons cannot be considered "primary cosmic ray particles" by any reasoning I can conjure.
What PAMELA found is far-less sensational. They found the fraction of positron flux to total (positron + electron) flux increases with energy rather than decreasing. At 5 GeV the fraction is about 0.1 and at 100 GeV it's about 0.15. The fraction is the number of positrons divided by the number of positrons and electrons. This is graphed
here. Balloon-based experiments have also shown a spike in total (electron + positron) flux at about 700 GeV graphed
here.
The reason this got some play in some low-key science journals is because there were theories of dark matter that had predicted these results (at least as a possibility). Here's one from 1998:
Positron Propagation and Fluxes from Neutralino [dark matter] Annihilation in the Halo. I don't know enough about the results or the prediction to say how likely that is... but I wouldn't bet the farm on it.
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Originally Posted by Hasanuddin
I have maintained throughout that if the Dominium were correct, then a formulaic proof would necessarily be forthcoming.
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Good deal

Now you're talking my language
If the idea has merit then the best course of action would surely involve proving its merit...
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Originally Posted by Hasanuddin
You first seem to assert that a model cannot be formed on the idea of gravitational repulsion because there is no direct measurement of matter and antimatter gravitational interaction.
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I'm quite sure I said absolutely nothing of that sort. You should probably reread my post perhaps keeping in mind that when I say "you don't have a model yet and you'll need one in order to convince people of your postulates" I mean that you need to develop your idea into a system of making quantitative predictions in order to convince people that the universe is half antimatter which is repulsed gravitationally by matter. That actually means the opposite of "a model cannot be formed".
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Originally Posted by Hasanuddin
However, the same logic you use to discredit the Dominium also discredits all popular-bias models based on the notion of “universal attraction,” where, in fact, no direct observation of matter and antimatter gravitationally attracting exists.
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I have no idea what you're talking about. There have been no observations of any gravitational interactions between matter and antimatter. Any theory which asserts either would be speculative at this point.
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Originally Posted by Hasanuddin
No evidence actually implies a split in the road of possibilities. A model based on either assumption is equally as valid. For this reason I have applied the same analysis to both possible roads. Look back at the posted moves: gravitational-repulsion has consistently yielded matches to nature, while “universal-attraction” as achieved polar opposite mismatches.
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First, there are more than 2 possible roads. Gravity may have no effect on antimatter at all. Or, the gravitational constant may be different, or when general relativity is written in
Post-Newtonian formalism,

normal matter may obey the first term
only while antimatter follows the second term
only (the cosmological constant). There are many possibilities and without direct observation we must (as you say) use deductive reasoning to determine which is most plausible.
Second, your statement that universal attraction has not matched nature is untrue.
Alexander Friedmann and Georges Lemaître described how a universe filled with normal matter obeying the rules of general relativity would behave. Over 80 years later their description is still the best and simplest model of the universe we have and it absolutely does agree with observation.
Trying to advance your model by saying that their model disagrees with observation will surely be an ineffective tactic. The way science works, your theory will supplant their theory when your theory makes better predictions, explains the evolution of the universe better, and is in better agreement with observation. For example, according to standard cosmology the mass density of the universe should be X and according to your cosmology the mass density should be Y. The actual measured mass density is Z. Which cosmology is closer? Again, for example, standard cosmology says the galaxy count should be X. Your cosmology says it should be Y. It's measured at Z. Which is closer?
Without a direct observation of massive amounts of repulsive antimatter out in the universe the method above is necessary to assert your idea over that idea. That... is the way of science.
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Originally Posted by Hasanuddin
Then you state that the Dominium cannot be formed because there is no evidence of any significant concentrations of antimatter in the observable universe.
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I said nothing of the sort.
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Originally Posted by Hasanuddin
First, I hope you realize that such a statement is untrue and neglects the antimatter cloud surrounding the galactic center of our, and other observed, galaxies.
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In reading my posts you might want to avoid trying to read my intentions between the lines. Neither I nor cosmology in general deny the existence of antimatter. It does exist and it can be formed by natural processes. My statement was the same as you'll find on wikipedia which I'll quote,
There's no point in making that statement into a strawman and attacking it. It is strictly true and the only thing I'm implying with it is that you're going to find it difficult to convince people that half of the observable universe is made of antimatter when there is no observational or experimental evidence for significant concentrations of antimatter in the observable universe.
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Originally Posted by Hasanuddin
Ignoring that verified data, your statement possesses the implied conclusion: Therefore antimatter exists nowhere in the Universe. This conclusion commits the informal fallacy of Composition:
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Your strawman of my comment contains the logical fallacy of composition... nice
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Originally Posted by Hasanuddin
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Hasanuddin, your whole post is noting but assumptions about what I'm implying, what my bias is, and what I know. So far, I don't think you've gotten any of those right... really just a wasted exchange. I tell you that I like your idea and I'm willing to help develop the physics of it and I don't think you've said one thing about your model in the response.
It has been known since before I was born that antimatter annihilation emitted gamma rays near the center of the galaxy...
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Originally Posted by Hasanuddin
You bring up facts about the galactic center that I agree with. However, those portions of the model have not yet been posted. There’s a lot on the table to digest as it is, so (no disrespect) I am going to wait on addressing those issues until we come to them.
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... and you avoid the one question I asked.
~modest