1112.5426 (Stephen L. Adler)

Modeling the flyby anomalies with dark matter scattering: update with
additional data and further predictions    [PDF]

Stephen L. Adler

We continue our exploration of whether the flyby anomalies can be explained
by scattering of spacecraft nucleons from dark matter gravitationally bound to
the earth, with the addition of data from five new flybys to that from the
original six. We continue to use our model in which inelastic and elastic
scatterers populate shells generated by the precession of circular orbits with
normals tilted with respect to the earth's axis. With 11 data points and 8
parameters in the model, a statistically meaningful fit is obtained with a
chi-squared of 2.7. We give plots of the anomalous acceleration along the
spacecraft trajectory, and the cumulative velocity change, for the five flybys
which exhibit a significant nonzero anomaly. We also discuss implications of
the fit for dark matter-nucleon cross sections, give the prediction of our fit
for the anomaly to be expected from the future Juno flyby, and give predictions
of our fit for flyby orbit orientation changes. In addition we give formulas
for estimating the flyby temperature increase caused by dark matter inelastic
scattering, and for the fraction of flyby nucleons undergoing such scatters.
Finally, for circular satellite orbits, we give a table of predicted secular
changes in orbit radius. These are much too large to be reasonable -- comparing
with data for COBE and GP-B supplied to us by Edward Wright (after the first
version of this paper was posted), we find that our model predicts changes in
orbit radius that are too large by many orders of magnitude. So the model
studied here is ruled out. We conclude that further modeling of the flyby
anomalies must simultaneously attempt to fit constraints coming from satellite
orbits.

View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1112.5426