Conjectured relativistic time-distortion from SIDM-driven dark-matter inflow

Establish whether rapid dark-matter inflow during self-interacting dark matter halo core collapse in the Milky Way can generate relativistic effects that distort time measurements and reverse the apparent direction of time, potentially explaining the observed backward evolution of the Galactic bar angle.

Background

The authors compile measurements indicating an extreme slowdown of the Galactic bar’s pattern speed and present visual evidence that the bar angle has apparently decreased in the opposite sense to Galactic rotation. To reconcile this, they propose a conjecture linking SIDM core-collapse inflow to relativistic time effects that could flip the effective time direction.

This conjecture aims to provide a unified explanation for both the rapid bar slowdown and the anomalous sense of apparent bar-angle evolution.