Quote:
Originally Posted by elysiantraveller
Isn't dark matter basically the modern day "ether?"
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Not quite. I think what might be "closer" to the Newtonian classical physics "ether", might be on the sub atomic quantum level.
"Closer" used loosely
There is the concept of "virtual" particles and "
quantum fluctuation", where things on the quantum level pop in and out of existence. A concept based on Werner Heisenberg's uncertainty principle.
This allows the creation of particle-antiparticle pairs of virtual particles. The effects of these particles are measurable, for example, in the effective charge of the electron, different from its "naked" charge. Amazingly the
Casimir effect demonstrates this experimentally.
The typical example is of the two uncharged conductive plates in a vacuum, placed a few nanometers apart. In a classical description, the lack of an external field means that there is no field between the plates, and no force would be measured between them.[8] When this field is instead studied using the quantum electrodynamic vacuum, it is seen that the plates do affect the virtual photons which constitute the field, and generate a net force[9]
