Dragan Slavkov Hajdukovic
Dragan Slavkov Hajdukovic | |
|---|---|
| Known for | Hypothesis that the quantum vacuum's gravitational polarization mimics dark matter |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physics, Cosmology |
| Institutions | CERN; University of Montenegro |
Dragan Slavkov Hajdukovic is a physicist associated with CERN and the University of Montenegro, known for his hypothesis that gravitational effects usually attributed to dark matter and dark energy may instead arise from the quantum vacuum. He is listed in The Worldwide List of Dissident Scientists.
Work
Beginning around 2008–2011, Hajdukovic developed the hypothesis that particles and antiparticles carry gravitational charges of opposite sign. If so, the virtual particle–antiparticle pairs of the quantum vacuum would behave as gravitational dipoles, and the gravitational polarization of the vacuum by ordinary (baryonic) matter could produce effects normally ascribed to dark matter. In his 2011 paper "Is dark matter an illusion created by the gravitational polarization of the quantum vacuum?" (Astrophysics and Space Science), he argued that this mechanism could account for galactic rotation curves without invoking dark matter. In related work he applied the same idea to the cosmological constant and dark energy.
The proposal depends on the untested assumption that antimatter has negative gravitational mass, which remains outside established physics; experiments such as CERN's ALPHA and AEgIS aim to test the gravitational behaviour of antimatter. Hajdukovic has continued to publish on antimatter gravity and cosmology.