Location: Engineering and Physics Building, Room 202
Dr. Anatoly Svidzinsky, Texas A&M University
Gravity, supermassive "black holes" at galactic centers and dark matter problem
Abstract:
So far Einstein general relativity (EGR) has passed all available tests. However such tests (including gravitational radiation from binary pulsars) inspected Einstein equations only at weak gravitational fields. At the same time, the Einstein equations disobey the superposition principle which creates difficulties to reconcile gravity and quantum mechanics.
First I show how to build a theory of gravity postulating the superposition principle for the gravitational force, rather than the Einstein equations. The alternative theory is equivalent to EGR at weak fields and also passes the available tests. However, in the limit of strong gravity the two theories differ dramatically: EGR predicts black holes, while the alternative theory has no singularities.
Then I present quantitative evidences based on observations of supermassive compact objects at galactic centers which support the alternative theory of gravity, not EGR. Such observations provide an answer to the question: "What is dark matter made of?" All of them point to the conclusion that dark matter is made of axions, and the axion mass is about 10-3 eV. I argue that supermassive objects at galactic centers are not black holes but oscillating axion bubbles. Imaging a shadow of the object at the center of our Galaxy with VLBI within the next few years will be capable to distinguish between the black hole and the oscillating axion bubble scenarios.