Dark Matter Realism

Foundations of Physics, vol. 52

Abstract

Abstract According to the standard model of cosmology, $$\Lambda $$ Λ CDM, the mass-energy budget of the current stage of the universe is not dominated by the luminous matter that we are familiar with, but instead by some form of dark matter (and dark energy). It is thus tempting to adopt scientific realism about dark matter. However, there are barely any constraints on the myriad of possible properties of this entity—it is not even certain that it is a form of matter. In light of this underdetermination I advocate caution: we should not (yet) be dark matter realists. The “not(-yet)-realism” that I have in mind is different from Hacking’s (Philos Sci 56 (4), 555–581, 1989) anti-realism, in that it is semantic rather than epistemological. It also differs from the semantic anti-realism of logical empiricism, in that it is naturalistic, such that it may only be temporary and does not automatically apply to all other unobservables (or even just to all other astronomical unobservables, as with Hacking’s anti-realism). The argument is illustrated with the analogy of the much longer history of the concept of a gene, as the current state of the concept of dark matter resembles in some relevant ways that of the early concept of genes.

Authors 1

1. Niels C. M. Martens corresponding Aachen Institute for Theoretical Particle Physics and Cosmology

   RWTH Aachen University · University of Bonn · University of Wuppertal

   Affiliation as printed

   DFG Research Unit “The Epistemology of the Large Hadron Collider” (Grant FOR 2063) https://www.lhc-epistemologie.uni-wuppertal.de/

   Institute for Theoretical Particle Physics and Cosmology, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany

   Lichtenberg Group for History and Philosophy of Physics, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany

   DFG Research Unit "The Epistemology of the Large Hadron Collider" (Grant FOR 2063) https://www.lhc-epistemologie.uni-wuppertal.de/