US EditionDark Matter Follows Same Gravitational Laws as Ordinary Matter
- On November 3, 2025, a team led by the University of Geneva published new dark matter results in Nature Communications, describing this as a major step forward with contributions from the University of Portsmouth.
- To answer whether dark matter follows ordinary laws, researchers probed whether a hypothetical fifth force would alter galaxy motions so they fall into gravitational wells differently.
- Using cosmological data, the team compared galaxies' velocities with gravitational-well depths and applied Euler's equations to test for extra forces, Camille Bonvin explained.
- The study places an upper bound on any fifth force, constraining it to at most 7% of gravity while noting that the Legacy Survey of Space and Time and Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument will probe down to 2%.
- The findings sharpen the characterisation of dark matter, noting it is five times more abundant than ordinary matter, while DESI's slice shows less than 0.1 per cent of its volume and LSST and DESI will probe forces as weak as 2% of gravity.
17 Articles
17 Articles
Comparing the motion of dark matter and standard model particles on cosmological scales - Nature Communications
Since dark matter particles have never been directly detected, we do not know how they move, and in particular we do not know how they fall inside gravitational potential wells. Usually it is assumed that dark matter only interacts gravitationally with itself and with particles of the standard model, and therefore that its motion is governed by Euler’s equation. In this paper, we do test this assumption directly at cosmological scales, by combin…
Eurek Alert
Dark matter does not defy gravity
Does dark matter follow the same laws as ordinary matter? The mystery of this invisible and hypothetical component of our Universe — which neither emits nor reflects light — remains unsolved. A team involving members from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) set out to determine whether, on a cosmological scale, this matter behaves like ordinary matter or whether other forces come into play. Their findings, published in Nature…
From The University of Geneva [Université de Genève] (CH): “Study suggests dark matter does not defy gravity”
From The University of Geneva [Université de Genève] (CH) November 3, 2025 Camille Bonvin Associate Professor Department of Theoretical Physics Faculty of Science UNIGE +41 22 379 30 36 Camille.Bonvin@unige.ch Map of the distribution of galaxies observed by the DESI collaboration, from which it is possible to accurately measure the velocities of galaxies. Credit: Claire…
Dark matter does not defy gravity, study suggests
Does dark matter follow the same laws as ordinary matter? The mystery of this invisible and hypothetical component of our universe—which neither emits nor reflects light—remains unsolved. A team involving members from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) set out to determine whether, on a cosmological scale, this matter behaves like ordinary matter or whether other forces come into play.
El Día de Córdoba
Granada HoyA study by the University of Geneva dismisses the existence of an unknown fifth force that governs this invisible component of the universe, although they do not completely close that possibility A glacier in Antarctica is reduced by half at a speed
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