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50x50: Science Across America is a national series uncovering exceptional science in all 50 states. It is a production of the Independent Media Initiative in collaboration with HHMI Tangled Bank Studios, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the Winn Family Foundation. See all the states at https://5050science.com
We have all heard of the mysterious dark matter that supposedly makes up most of our universe… But what do scientists suggest it could actually be? And why are they so sure it is there in the first place? This video takes a look at some of the popular theories surrounding dark matter.
Many thanks to Prof. Vuk Mandic and Dr. Luna Zagorac for their input into this video.
Vuk’s research: https://cse.umn.edu/physics/vuk-mandic
Luna’s talk “Dark Matter and Particle Physics”: https://pirsa.org/23040095
References:
Axion cosmology: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physrep.2016.06.005
Cosmic Microwave Background Anisotropies: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.astro.40.060401.093926
Collisionless Dynamics and the Cosmic Web: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1743921316009674 [Opens in a new window]
The dark matter of gravitational lensing: https://doi.org/10.1088/0034-4885/73/8/086901
A Map of the Universe: https://doi.org/10.1086/428890
The Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS) experiment: Results and prospects: https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/150/1/012006
Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND): https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2501.17006
Rotation Curve of the Milky Way: https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2603.14114
Dark Matter: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1353848
Interactive CBR: https://chrisnorth.github.io/planckapps/Simulator/
Link to Patreon Supporters: http://www.minutephysics.com/supporters/
And Facebook: http://facebook.com/minutephysics
Minute Physics provides an energetic and entertaining view of old and new problems in physics -- all in a minute!
Created by Henry Reich
Produced by Joshua Chawner
00:00 Intro
00:20 Galaxy Rotations
01:11 Gravitational Lensing
02:15 Cosmic Background Radiation
03:31 Universe Structure
04:51 The Nightmare Scenario
05:28 WIMPs
06:35 Axions
07:33 MACHOs
09:22 Modified Gravity
10:22 BONUS Theory!
11:02 50x50 Science Across America: Minnesota
This is the Minnesota entry for 50x50: Science Across America, a national series uncovering exceptional science in all 50 states. See more at http://5050science.com
As someone who does this stuff for a living, this is going to be the default video I send to people who ask me to explain what I do all day
If dark matter is made of WIMPs, does that mean we're made of SIMPs? (strongly interacting massive particles)
Sounds like an ultra violent catastrophe!
You know, these videos were pretty neat since the beginning, but the best part is that the background music hasn't changed for years. Love the walking baseline.
As someone who did their PhD studying dark matter dynamics and the cosmic web, I really appreciate how well presented this video is, especially how emphasised the strength of the CMB evidence is compared to rotation curves (and that MOND struggles in some key ways). A lot of scicomm and popular science sources, even well researched ones oversimplify this too much and this is absolutely my new default source for sharing with people 😊
It's so exciting to get to see the precipice of us figuring out something which may completely radicalize the standard model!
10:49 maybe the real dark matter is the friends we made along the way.
Good for you, clarifying that the Weakly, isn't for weakness of interaction, but that it may only interact with the W and Z Bosons of the Weak Force. To many presenters miss this feature.
I like how you only invert half the colors so your hand looks glowing when that light is really just the shadow of your hand normally. You sell it well by making it shine onto the paper in post. Well done. Love it
Coming up with ideas on how to test your hypotheses has to be the most fun part of doing science.
Excellent video, loved it! Two thoughts though: 1. I thought there were only candidates for primordial black holes detected by JWST, but none confirmed so far 2. Missing a pretty big piece of evidence I would say, that some galaxies seem to have a lot of dark matter, and some none at all. (Also the bullet cluster is my favorite example of DM’s effect)
this is gonna get buried in the comments but dude i have been watching your videos for almost 15 years and i just wanna say you are my favorite science communicator on the internet
unintentional cat at 8:13
I like when you discuss unsettled science. You should do more of it
That representation of the standard model is really neat! Such a great way to represent it, as stacks. Oh and you could even make the photon be a torn off bit of paper from the W's and Z
We can easily put this whole debate to rest with nothing more than a faster-than-light spaceship and a sample collection bucket.
Fantastic job as usual!❤
Gotta love massive meaning having mass even if only slightly above 0 in one acronym and then meaning having a large amount of mass in another.
This is such a great overview of the current state of our understanding of dark matter! I've learned many different about it, and ALL of it made it into the video!