Cosmologists Show Negative Mass Could Exist In Our Universe 214
KentuckyFC (1144503) writes The idea of negative mass has fascinated scientists since it was first used in the 16th century to explain why metals gain weight when they are oxidized. Since then, theoretical physicists have shown how it could be used to create exotic objects such as wormholes and the Alcubierre warp drive. But cosmologists' attempts to include negative matter in any reasonable model of the cosmos have always run into trouble because negative mass violates the energy conditions required to make realistic universes with Einstein's theory of general relativity. Now a pair of cosmologists have found a way around this. By treating negative mass as a perfect fluid rather than a solid point-like object, they've shown that negative mass does not violate the energy conditions as had been thought, and so it must be allowed in our universe. That has important consequences. If positive and negative mass particles were created in the early universe, they would form a kind of plasma that absorbs gravitational waves. Having built a number of gravitational wave observatories that have to see a single gravitational wave, astronomers might soon need to explain the absence of observations. Negative mass would then come in extremely handy.
Re:The crackpot cosmology "theory" Du Jour (Score:5, Insightful)
As we better understand the universe, we find gaps between reality and our understanding. We then try to extend our understanding to better match reality, and that means filling in those gaps. Sometimes it takes many tries to fill in a gap, or at least make it smaller.
Negative mass is one of those attempts, and it's worth noting that they aren't clinging to the concept, they're simply suggesting that it's one possibility that can be tested. In other words, they actually are using Occam's Razor. In this realm, nothing is simple, which makes the Razor harder to use.