Gravitational Quantum Mechanics—Implications for Dark Matter

Abstract

The laboratory verification of the existence of gravitational eigenstates and studies of their properties in the Earth’s gravitational field raises the question of whether the prediction of particle behaviour in gravitational wells would be any different if it were analysed using quantum theory rather than classical physics. In fact, applying Schrodinger’s equation to the weak gravity regions of large gravitational wells shows that particles in these wells can have significantly reduced optical interaction cross sections and be weakly interacting compared to classical expectations. Their cross sections are dependent on their wavefunctional form and the environment in which they exist. This quantum phenomenon has implications for the dark matter (DM) problem. Analysis using gravitational quantum mechanics (GQM) has shown that a proton, electron, or any other particle within the standard model of particle physics (SMPP) could potentially function as a “dark matter particle” when bound in a gravity well, provided the gravitational eigenspectral ensemble of their wavefunction contains a sufficient proportion of the gravitational well’s weakly interacting gravitational eigenstates. The leading theoretical paradigm for cosmic evolution, Lambda Cold Dark Matter (LCDM), currently lacks a suitable weakly interacting DM candidate particle, and gravitational quantum theory could provide a resolution to this. This article reviews the GQM approach to DM and provides some new results derived from the GQM analysis of particles held in the weak gravity regions of deep gravitational wells. It also outlines some predictions of the gravitational quantum approach that might be tested through observation.