The Quanta Podcast Debate Intensifies Over Dark Disk Theory
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Apr 21, 2016 Researchers revive the controversial idea that dark matter might form a thin disk in our galaxy. Debate centers on whether such a disk could bias star-count mass estimates and escape current constraints. New data from Gaia and refined analyses promise to confirm or rule out narrow windows where a thin dark disk could exist. The theory hints at complex dark-sector physics like dark atoms and dissipative forces.
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Dark Disk Loophole In Mass Estimates
- The dark disk idea, first proposed by Jan Oort, was revived by Lisa Randall as a possible concentrated layer of dark matter in the Milky Way's plane.
- Randall and Eric Kramer show a thin dark disk could hide by 'pinching' visible matter, biasing mass estimates upward.
Randall's Dark Disk Comeback
- Lisa Randall resurrected the dark disk idea in 2013 to explain gamma rays and dwarf galaxy distributions.
- She also linked a thin disk to periodic comet impacts and mass extinctions in her book Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs.
A Disk Implies A Rich Dark Sector
- Finding any dark disk would imply a complex dark sector rather than simple inert particles.
- Disk formation requires energy loss, suggesting dark atoms and dark photons could exist.
