Dark Matter

For many years I've been constructing science fiction stories around fictional science that puts names on the constituents of dark matter. It is fun to imagine that there are as-yet-undiscovered fundamental particles like hierions and sedrons that can reside in compact dimensions and gravitationally interact with conventional matter.

For the story Exode, I've been imagining a rather conventional solution to the global warming problem. My idea has been that when the Buld arrive in the Solar System, they take note of global warming on Earth and devise a plan by which Mercury can be turned into a solar energy collector and hierions can be used to efficiently transmit energy from Mercury to Earth, meeting all of the energy needs of our world.

Variations in matter density within the local region of the universe (source).

The Sun as a Dark Matter Detector
I've started imagining an alternative solution to the problem of global warming. It has been suggested that the energy output of the Sun is sensitive to dark matter. Astronomers can estimate the distribution of dark matter in the universe using indirect means that depend on how the force of gravity produced by dark matter influences conventional matter. On the scale of hundreds of millions of light years, the density of dark matter is quite variable. In the diagram at the top of this page, blue was used to indicate a huge halo of dark matter as inferred from its gravitational effects on visible galaxies. In the larger image above this paragraph, blue indicates low density and red the high "local" matter density of the Centaurus cluster. Flow lines indicated the observers deflection of "local" galaxies from the expected dark energy-induced expansion of the universe. Most of that deflection is thought to be due to the effects of invisible dark matter, although convention matter and dark matter do share patterns of association.

It has been suggested that the gravitational effects of the planets (and particularly Jupiter, with a mass that is 2.5 times that of all the other planets in the solar system combined) might influence the interaction of dark matter with the Sun and contribute to the variation in energy output of the Sun (solar cycle).

What about solar output variations over longer time scales?

Might long-term variations in energy output of the Sun reflect changes in the level of dark matter interactions with the Sun?

Stellar Engineering
What if the Buld could use advanced technology to alter the rate of interaction of the Sun with dark matter and cool the Sun just enough to offset the effects of green house gasses on global warming? If so, then the Buld need not "dirty their hands" by interacting with ignorant Earthlings.
________________
Related reading:
previous blog post on stellar engineering