Dark matter might be an illusion caused by the boiling of quantum fields at the smallest possible scales of space.
April 25, 2026
Original Paper
Emergent Metric Fluctuations from Quantum Field Correlators in Darwinian Quantum Gravity
SSRN · 6643038
The Takeaway
Scientists have spent decades searching for dark matter particles without ever finding a single one. This new model proposes that the gravitational effects we attribute to dark matter are actually caused by tiny fluctuations in the fabric of space itself. These fluctuations emerge from the quantum behavior of electricity and magnetism at extremely high energies. This means the extra pull we see in galaxies is not coming from hidden mass, but from the way quantum fields naturally warp gravity. It replaces a mysterious new substance with a property of physics we already know exists.
From the abstract
Previous analysis of the Einstein Field Equations in the presence of stochastic metric tensor perturbations indicated that nonlinear dependence of the Christoffel symbols on metric tensor prevent complete cancellation of metric tensor fluctuations along phase-space trajectories; causing quantum gravitational corrections to classical geodesic motion that are called q-desics. We investigate the dynamical mechanism of metric tensor fluctuations arising from correlated quantum electromagnetic degree