We point out serious shortcomings of a very recent article (Iorio in Astrophys. Space Sci. 364:126, 2019) wrongly claiming that the current precision with which we know orbits of planets in the Solar System rules out the possibility of gravitational
polarization of the quantum vacuum. The main mistake is that the Sun and a planet are considered as an isolated binary system completely neglecting the existence of other planets and their crucial contribution to the gravitational polarization of the quantum vacuum.
Before the end of this decade, three competing experiments (ALPHA, AEGIS and GBAR) will discover if atoms of antihydrogen fall up or down. We wonder what the major changes in astrophysics and cosmology would be if it is experimentally confirmed that
antimatter falls upwards. The key point is: If antiparticles have negative gravitational charge, the quantum vacuum, well established in the Standard Model of Particles and Fields, contains virtual gravitational dipoles. The main conclusions are: (1) the physical vacuum enriched with gravitational dipoles is compatible with a cyclic universe alternatively dominated by matter and antimatter, without initial singularity and without need for cosmic inflation; (2) the virtual dipoles might explain the phenomena usually attributed to dark matter and dark energy. While what we have presented is still far from a complete theory, hopefully it can stimulate a radically different and potentially important way of thinking.
In the absence of the physical understanding of the phenomenon, different empirical laws have been used as approximation for distribution of dark matter in galaxies and clusters of galaxies. We suggest a new profile which is not empirical in nature,
but motivated with the physical idea that what we call dark matter is essentially the gravitational polarization of the quantum vacuum (containing virtual gravitational dipoles) by the immersed baryonic matter. It is very important to include this new profile in forthcoming studies of dark matter halos and to reveal how well it performs in comparison with empirical profiles. A good agreement of the profile with observational findings would be the first sign of unexpected gravitational properties of the quantum vacuum.
The first three years of the LHC experiments at CERN have ended with the nightmare scenario: all tests, confirm the Standard Model of Particles so well that theorists must search for new physics without any experimental guidance. The supersymmetric t
heories, a privileged candidate for new physics are nearly excluded. As a potential escape from the crisis, we propose thinking about a series of astonishing relations suggesting fundamental interconnections between the quantum world and the large scale Universe. It seems reasonable that, for instance, the equation relating a quark-antiquark pair with the fundamental physical constants and cosmological parameters must be a sign of new physics. One of the intriguing possibilities is interpreting our relations as a signature of the quantum vacuum containing the virtual gravitational dipoles.
It is not known if, in addition to the Newtons inverse square law component, the gravitational force has some non-Newtonian, long-range components that have escaped detection until now. For example, the non-Newtonian component of the gravitational fo
rce naturally arises if gravity is interpreted as an entropic force, or under far reaching hypothesis that quantum vacuum contains virtual gravitational dipoles. We point out that some trans-Neptunian objects (for instance a binary system or a dwarf planet with its satellite) might be a good laboratory to establish the eventual existence of non-Newtonian components of gravity. The key points are that, in the case of an ideal two-body system, the perihelion precession can be caused only by a gravitational force that deviates from the inverse square law and that the perihelion precession rate is larger in systems with smaller mass. It is shown, that in some trans-Neptunian (two-body) systems, the perihelion precession rate caused by internal interactions might be larger than the (inevitable) precession induced by external gravitational field.
The understanding of the gravitational properties of the quantum vacuum might be the next scientific revolution.It was recently proposed that the quantum vacuum contains the virtual gravitational dipoles; we argue that this hypothesis might be tested
within the Solar System. The key point is that quantum vacuum (enriched with the gravitational dipoles) induces a retrograde precession of the perihelion. It is obvious that this phenomenon might eventually be revealed by more accurate studies of orbits of planets and orbits of the artificial Earth satellites. However, we suggest that potentialy the best laboratory for the study of the gravitational properties of the quantum vacuum is the Dwarf Planet Eris and its satellite Dysnomia; the distance of nearly 100AU makes it the unique system in which the precession of the perihelion of Dysnomia (around Eris) is strongly dominated by the quantum vacuum.
The cosmological constant problem is the principal obstacle in the attempt to interpret dark energy as the quantum vacuum energy. We suggest that the obstacle can be removed, i.e. that the cosmological constant problem can be resolved by assuming tha
t the virtual particles and antiparticles in the quantum vacuum have the gravitational charge of the opposite sign. The corresponding estimates of the cosmological constant, dark energy density and the equation of state for dark energy are in the intriguing agreement with the observed values in the present day Universe. However, our approach and the Standard Cosmology lead to very different predictions for the future of the Universe; the exponential growth of the scale factor, predicted by the Standard Cosmology, is suppressed in our model.
Recently, the gravitational polarization of the quantum vacuum was proposed as alternative to the dark matter paradigm. In the present paper we consider four benchmark measurements: the universality of the central surface density of galaxy dark matte
r haloes, the cored dark matter haloes in dwarf spheroidal galaxies, the non-existence of dark disks in spiral galaxies and distribution of dark matter after collision of clusters of galaxies (the Bullet cluster is a famous example). Only some of these phenomena (but not all of them) can (in principle) be explained by the dark matter and the theories of modified gravity. However, we argue that the framework of the gravitational polarization of the quantum vacuum allows the understanding of the totality of these phenomena.
The neutrino oscillations probabilities depend on mass squared differences; in the case of 3-neutrino mixing, there are two independent differences, which have been measured experimentally. In order to calculate the absolute masses of neutrinos, we h
ave conjectured a third relation, in the form of a sum of squared masses. The calculated masses look plausible and are in good agreement with the upper bounds coming from astrophysics.
We argue that the hypothesis of the gravitational repulsion between matter and antimatter can be tested at the Ice Cube, a neutrino telescope, recently constructed at the South Pole. If there is such a gravitational repulsion, the gravitational field
, deep inside the horizon of a black hole, might create neutrino-antineutrino pairs from the quantum vacuum. While neutrinos must stay confined inside the horizon, the antineutrinos should be violently ejected. Hence, a black hole (made from matter) should behave as a point-like source of antineutrinos. Our simplified calculations suggest, that the antineutrinos emitted by supermassive black holes in the centre of the Milky Way and Andromeda Galaxy, could be detected by the new generation of neutrino telescopes.
