Is it possible that there are particles that move faster than light (ie. Dark Matter) that we can’t measure because photons move too slow for us to see them.
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It’s definitely not what causes dark matter, because there would be characteristic radiation from FTL particles (Cherenkov radiation) if it was.
The thing you don’t know is that virtual photons are everywhere, being interacted with all the time. FTL more or less shocks them into being “real” (i.e. observable) by inputting so much energy into the system that the electric and magnetic fields are deformed into a light cone similar to a sonic boom. If there were tachyons (and believe me, I briefly thought a team I was on had weak evidence) this is how we would find them—by the characteristic light they emit.
But so far, there’s no evidence. And as for DM, it’s definitely something that doesn’t interact with light at all—we just hope that in addition to gravity, it interacts with at least one of the nuclear forces.
Theoretically, that are possible. They even have a name “tachyons” they can never go slower than the speed of light.
Now, they would not be “Dark Matter” as dark matter particles seem to need to be “cold” meaning “slow moving”
We’ve never detected any of these theoretical FTL particles.
The possibility stems from the idea that some particles can have zero mass and infinite speed. General Relativity allows for this since the particle (theoretically) could never have a resting mass due to its infinite speed. The term for this type of theoretical particle is “Tachyons.” That may be a good place to start researching as the idea does fit within the realms of General Relativity.
This is all theoretical as no known particles with mass have been observed moving faster than light speed. If a particle with mass were to move beyond the speed of light, it would require infinite energy to do so.
No, it is not possible, and no, dark matter most definitely does not travel at or faster than light. I see some other answers mention tachyons but tachyons have never been proven to exist nor are they theorized to. Tachyons are merely instabilities that exist in certain theories, they do NOT predict the actual existence of FTL particles.
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