The Dark Sector on the Mesh

The BPT law

BPT Part 3.13 (The Dark Sector: Data Matter, the Null Vacuum, and Vacuum Pressure) names the dark matter Data Matter: "the data that never becomes physical". At the Data Nova the Pulsecore pours its data onto the scaffold; at the Physical Nova part of it condenses into matter and "the rest stays data. From that moment it has mass, by the Data–Matter Equivalence of Part 2.9, but it was never resolved into charged particles, so it has nothing to emit, absorb or scatter light with." It gravitates, passes through itself, and is cold, "it moves slowly next to light and so clumps on every scale"; and "it comes first": the data is laid on the scaffold at the Data Nova, and only at the Physical Nova does matter "condense and fall into a web already there".

Its amount is the Data Matter Count with Failed Proto Wells (G):

N◍ / N_b = (1 − P⦰) · 16 · 4^L / ((13/3)² · 4^L − 16 · 4^L)

the skin laid before the physical layer, less what its failed Proto Wells return, against the data the core gathered until the Physical Nova. With the Dimensional Failure Law of BPT Part 3.9, P⦰ = 2^(−D) = 1/16 for D = 4 actual dimensions, "the count is N◍ / N_b = (15/16) × 144/25 = 27/5 = 5.40, against the measured 5.36 ± 0.06". The level cancels; only the number of actual dimensions remains. It thins with the expansion and slowly returns home, the Data Matter Return, ρ◍ = ρ◍⊚ · a^(−3) · exp(−Γ◍ · t); the sky bounds its lifetime above about 246 billion years (Alvi et al. 2022), so "at most about 5 % of the Data Matter can have returned in our 13.8 billion years".

The established physics

• The measured cold dark matter ratio, Ω_c h²/Ω_b h² = 0.120/0.0224 ≈ 5.36 (Planck Collaboration 2020; BPT Part 3.13).
• Dark matter lifetime at least about 246 Gyr (Alvi et al. 2022, cited at app.js:1338).
• The cosmological principle: no band of the torus preferred.

The game's math

actualDimensions(L) app.js:1329: 2 at L ≤ 0, 3 at L = 1, 4 from L = 2. darkRatio() app.js:1331:

R◍ = (1 − 2^(−D)) · 144 / 25 = 5.4 for D = 4

At the burst (app.js:1244), matter.darkMass = Q·R◍ and ρ̄ for G includes it (Part 4.3).

darkField() app.js:1342, every sub-step:

1. Return. Over dt flips since last call, back = darkMass·(1 − exp(−DM_RETURN_PER_LIFE·dt/(2·rupturePulses))), DM_RETURN_PER_LIFE = 11.0/246 ≈ 0.0447 per life (app.js:1341); the mass returned goes on the ledger as dataHome.
2. Layout. Pulsing cells are counted per mesh block (cnt). Each row of blocks has its own mean replaced by the global mean, floor 0 (app.js:1352), so Data Matter "is even from band to band" (2026-10-28).
3. Mass. Each block gets cnt·darkMass/total. The first time it is set outright; after that it is smoothed, dark = 0.75·dark + 0.25·new (app.js:1355), since Data Matter is cold and slow while the data that lays it out circulates at light speed.

meshForces() adds this.dark to the density bodies and wells feel (Part 4.7). The Data Matter does not cool, form stars or fall into horizons through Matter; its capture by wells is in stepWells() (Shapiro & Teukolsky 1983, app.js:848–866, documented with the wells in Chapter 3, Part 3.11).

Worked case: Q ≈ 77,300 cells (desktop, Part 4.5), darkMass = 417,400 cells at the burst. Over the life of 128 flips the return takes 1 − e^(−0.0447) ≈ 4.4 % of it.

In the game

Data Matter is never drawn; true to the book, nothing about it touches light. The player meets it only through gravity: it is laid under the matter on the gravity mesh, outweighing it 27 to 5 wherever the data lies, and it is counted in the density that sets the universe's G (Part 4.3).

What is shown is its count. At the Physical Nova a toast reports the Proto Wells whose collapse failed (app.js:1375): "failed Proto Wells: N of M Proto Wells failed (one in 16: every dimension of theirs returned null) · K cells of their data went home to the Source and will be neither dark matter nor matter", the 16 being 2^D at four actual dimensions. The run's saved record keeps the universe's actual dimensions, its Data Matter ratio and its failed Proto Wells (dims, dark_ratio, failed_proto_wells, app.js:2209). The Data Matter's slow return is counted on the ledger as dataHome (app.js:1345), and what physical wells capture of it as dataCaptured (app.js:864; Chapter 3, Part 3.11). No control changes it.

The scale model

The Data Matter has no bodies: it is a density on the mesh that follows the data's layout. Its mass is the law's ratio to the matter actually sent out. Since the matter sent out is itself 6.76 times the book's ordinary matter count (Part 4.5), the absolute amount of Data Matter is the book's ratio applied to that larger base.

Where the game and the theory differ

• Laid out, not moved. BPT's Data Matter is cold matter that gravitates, clumps on every scale and builds the web before the matter falls into it. The game's has no bodies and no motion of its own: each sub-step darkField() lays it out in proportion to the data's pulsing cells per mesh block, smoothed over sub-steps, with each row of blocks evened to the global mean. So it follows the layout of the data, which circulates at light speed, and not its own gravity or the matter's; it does not gather into halos ahead of the matter.
• A larger base. The ratio is the book's, but it is applied to the matter the game sends out, which is 6.76 times the book's ordinary matter (Part 4.5), so the absolute amount of Data Matter is 6.76 times the book's too.

Fixed numbers