LOS ALTOS HILLS, Calif., Aug. 23 (AScribe Newswire) -- NASA issued a news release on August 16, 2007 entitled, "Dark Matter Mystery Deepens in Cosmic Train Wreck." It describes the unusual features of the merger-formed Abell 520 galaxy cluster comprising a small group of bright galaxies devoid of dark matter, a massive region of dark matter, and a region of X-ray emitting gas. Abell 502 represents the aftermath of a collision-merger between two equal-size galaxy clusters.
The collision-merger of Abell 520 apparently caused dark matter to separate from the two merging galaxy clusters and to combine to form a massive region of dark matter with a scattering of galaxies surrounding it and an isolated small region containing a small group of bright galaxies that appears to be devoid of dark matter.
The galaxy-cluster-collision mystery of Abell 520 is very different from last year's case of the collision-formed Bullet Cluster (also known as 1E 0657-56).The Bullet Cluster was created by a small low-mass galaxy cluster passing through a larger galaxy cluster at about 4500 km/sec, yielding a merger time of about one billion years. Some researchers consider the Bullet Cluster's collision velocity to be "very high" and not ordinary.
The mass of the smaller cluster, that merged to form the Bullet Cluster, was about 22 percent of the mass of the larger one. Its mass was so low and its velocity was so high that the effective interaction of its dark matter/galaxies on the larger cluster apparently was not substantial. This is evident from the fact that in the case of the Bullet Cluster each of the original galaxy clusters has retained its own dark matter and its own bright galaxies, even after the merger of clusters was competed.
On the other hand, Abell 520 was created by the merger of two equal-size clusters at a collision velocity probably lower than the "very high" 4500 km/sec. The collision velocity of Abell 520 apparently was low enough and its two cluster masses high enough to permit substantial interaction between the dark matter/galaxies of the merging galaxy clusters. The appearance of the post-merger massive dark matter region in Abell 520 attests to a true galaxy cluster merger having taken place, compared to the brief-encounter-merger appearance of the Bullet Cluster, which still carries the images of the two original galaxy clusters.
The composite multi-color images shown in Fig.2 of the scientific paper,"A Dark Core In Abell 520" (go to http://arxiv.org and enter: 0706.3048v1 into "search or article-id") that exhibits the extreme interaction characteristics that might be expected of a collision-merger of galaxy clusters involving the creation of multiple starburst galaxies, which are active and dynamic and have high star formation rates (SFRs) 50 times higher than normal.
Under the relativistic-proton dark matter theory a spiral galaxy's dark matter halo is consumed over time in the star formation process and in the hydrogen fusion process within stars, while the higher-energy relativistic dark-matter protons orbiting groups of galaxies would tend to be ejected during galaxy cluster mergers involving starburst galaxies. Thus, after Abell 520's one billion-year cluster-merger process there should be regions of only dark matter, of bright spiral galaxies devoid of dark matter halos, of bright spiral galaxies with diminished halos, and possibly some burned-out dark galaxies -- a composite cosmic "train wreck."
A plausible explanation for the make-up of Abell 520 may be derived via a study of Chapters 50, 47 and 46 of "Comprehending and Decoding the Cosmos," authored by Jerome Drexler in 2006. This same information formed the theoretical basis for the phenomena described on the previous page.
Chapter 50, entitled, "Different Dark Matter for Small Galaxies and for Clusters" discusses relativistic-proton dark matter having two different kinetic energy peaks (designated dual dark matter) within a galaxy cluster. It also discusses self-interaction by dark matter.
Chapter 47 entitled, "UHECR Protons via Starburst Galaxies/ Merging Galaxies," focuses on the ejection of the higher-energy dark matter protons from starburst galaxies, which are created by the merging of two galaxies from two merging galaxy clusters. The chapter references two 2005 scientific papers by other researchers as support for the theory. (UHECR stands for Ultra-high-energy cosmic rays.) Chapter 46 entitled, "Starburst Galaxies Form via Merging Galaxy Clusters" explains how some galaxy cluster mergers trigger the formation of highly active and dynamic starburst galaxies, which theoretically could create an Abell 520-like cosmic "train wreck" over a merger time scale.
The relativistic-proton dark matter theory posits that a spiral galaxy's dark matter halo is comprised of galaxy orbiting relativistic protons whose orbits are determined by the proton kinetic energy and the strength of the transverse extragalactic magnetic field. Within a galaxy cluster, in addition to dark-matter protons orbiting individual spiral galaxies, there are also higher-energy relativistic dark-matter protons in larger orbits that are orbiting groups of several galaxies.
Chapter 50 points out that in the Local Group galaxy cluster the average kinetic energy of these higher-energy protons is estimated to be about 30 times higher than that of the protons orbiting a single spiral galaxy. The quantity of these higher-energy protons (whose synchrotron emission is in the extreme UV or soft X-ray range) in a galaxy cluster is estimated to be much smaller than those protons orbiting single spiral galaxies (whose synchrotron emission is in the infrared).
The orbits of both the higher-energy protons and the lower-energy protons are determined by the transverse extragalactic magnetic field they encounter. During the merger of two galaxy clusters these magnetic fields may be distorted or altered depending upon the nature of each of the two galaxy clusters, their relative orientation, the degree of merger completion, their collision velocity, the time period of interaction, and other features of the cluster merging process.
Such magnetic field distortions should cause the higher-energy higher-velocity dark matter protons to be ejected from their orbits as reported in Chapter 47. If the magnetic field distortions were more severe, then some of the lower-energy lower velocity protons orbiting single galaxies also could be ejected from their orbits.
On the basis of this dual-dark-matter explanation, perhaps the relativistic-proton dark matter of the Bullet Cluster experienced much less of a magnetic field distortion during the lower-interaction merger of galaxy clusters than in the case of Abell 520. This might have permitted most to all of the lower-energy dark matter protons to remain with the merging galaxies in the Bullet Cluster and might have caused essentially all of the higher-energy dark matter protons and some to all of the lower-energy protons to depart many of the bright galaxies of Abell 520.
This could explain the Abell 520 dark matter core being devoid of bright galaxies while having bright galaxies in another region being devoid of dark matter. Note that Chapter 47 uses this same theory to explain that during mergers of galaxy clusters and their galaxies some of the higher-energy relativistic protons will be ejected and either will be added to the dark matter of the merged clusters or will enter some star systems as ultra-high-energy cosmic ray protons Two scientific papers reporting such observations are Diego F. Torres and Luis A. Anchordoqui, 2005, astro-ph/0505283 v1 and Elena Pierpaoli and Glennys Farrar, 2005, astro-ph/0507679 v3.
Perhaps it should be noted here that the reported Chandra X-ray photons detected from the very hot gas of Abell 520 (located near the dark matter core) actually could include some soft X-ray synchrotron emission photons from the ultra-high-energy relativistic dark matter protons.
"Comprehending and Decoding the Cosmos" discloses the surprising and significant roles and functions of dark matter in creating spiral galaxies, stars, starburst galaxies, ultra-high-energy cosmic rays, and other phenomena. Thus, a fitting subtitle for the book is, "Discovering Solutions to Over a Dozen Cosmic Mysteries by Utilizing Dark Matter Relationism, Cosmology, and Astrophysics."
This book is now available in 40 astronomy or physics libraries around the world including libraries at Harvard, Stanford, Yale, UC Berkeley, Cornell, Harvard-Smithsonian, Vassar, and the universities of Hawaii, Toronto, Illinois, Edinburgh, Hamburg, Goettingen, Groningen, Copenhagen, Chile, Bologna, Helsinki, Lisbon, Guadalajara, and Kyoto, and the Max-Planck-Institut for Astrophysik.
Jerome Drexler, the author of the referenced book, entered the race to identify dark matter in 2002, by utilizing Albert Einstein's 1905 Special Theory of Relativity, Claude Shannon's information theory, Johannes Kepler's 400-year-old idea of re-analyzing the astronomical data of others, Occam's (Ockham's) razor logic of the 14th century and Drexler’s own 50-year career in applied physics research, invention and innovation that began with seven years at Bell Laboratories.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jerome Drexler is a former NJIT Research Professor in physics at New Jersey Institute of Technology, founder and former Chairman and chief scientist of LaserCard Corp. (Nasdaq: LCRD) and former Member of the Technical Staff of Bell Laboratories. He has been awarded 76 U.S. patents, honorary Doctor of Science degrees from NJIT and Upsala College, a degree of Honorary Fellow of the Technion, an Alfred P.Sloan Fellowship at Stanford University, a three-year Bell Labs graduate study fellowship, the 1990 "Inventor of the Year Award" for Silicon Valley and recognition as the inventor of the familiar "Laser Optical Storage System." He is a member of the NJIT Board of Overseers and an Honorary Life Member of the Technion Board of Governors.
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CONTACT: Jerome Drexler, 650-941-2716, drexlerastro@aol.com
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