Dark Matter

Raj came bouncing into Sheldons office, excitedly waving his phone.

"Sheldon, have you seen this! Nature have published research about a galaxy without a dark matter halo." Sheldon looks up as Raj continues. "The Dragonfly array has confirmed using cluster analysis that Galaxy NGC1052-DF2 has a mass equal to its stars. No Dark Matter! Dokkum and that lot from Yale have been looking into it"

Sheldon puts down his marker pen and thinks.

"Oh, interesting. That is highly anomalous, most galaxies we've seen have a 5:1 ratio of Dark matter. But I'm not studying dark matter anymore."

He points at one of his white boards. Raj looks crestfallen "why not?"

"Penny has gave me some remarkable insights into possible string structures that may account for gravitational interactions."

Raj stares at the board. "Wow. Penny did all this?"

"Well, Penny did that. " He points to a twisted string diagram in the bottom corner .

"Instead of a string, she suggested we consider it a sheet. From there, I explored the topology as the sheet can flex, knot or roll. The rolling interactions seem to be the most promising"

"She also did that." He points to a smiley face "In case things make me sad."

"And those" He points to several little hearts, one with "Penny4Sheldon" in it. "As I find the endearment charming"

Raj looked around Sheldon's office, noticing the little splashes of colour. A hair scrunchy around a pot of pens. Little hearts and flowers in the corners of Sheldon's boards. A penny blossom clipped to his desk lamp. A brightly coloured picture frame.

She had done the seemingly impossible, integrated herself into Sheldon's life of crazy order and routines without either of them going insane. In fact Sheldon seemed to be thriving at the centre of her colourful chaos.

"You two seem to be doing amazingly well."

"By the superlative I take it there is an implicit "for a Sheldon" on there?

"Yeah, the faculty keep asking how you did it. You know Lesley is taking ghoulish delight in creating more and more outlandish rumours just to see how far she can push it?"

"I know, I suggested a few for her"

"So you didn't accidentally memorise a secret government spy database and Penny is secretly your CIA bodyguard?"

"No, that's the plot of the TV show "Chuck". I believe the relevant term is Bazinga!"

Raj laughs.

"So what's on this board?" He points to a board covered in shorthand scrawl.

"Oh, that's a little joke. I've been analysing rap lyrics looking for references to the platonic ideals."

"What?"

"you seem, they never say 'A' club, it's always 'The' club. This makes the songs theme more relatable for people but it also follows Plato's concept of a universal ideal."

Raj is surprised for a moment then agrees "very true, it's get on the floor in the club, not this club"

"I'll be looking for a music based body to publish it later"

"This could be big money! I'm sure someone would love the pun of calling a Plato themed nightclub "Ideal". "

"if that's a joke I don't get it. What I could do with is your help getting data from the LIGO.

The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory? that's high end stuff, what are you after?

"If My theory is correct, using data from the Caltech LIgo when the Sagitarrius A* supermassive black hole event occurs... "Raj butts in, excited "you think that when the S Star gets close you'll see proof of rolled strings in the gravity waves? if you're right this could be Massive. Supermassive in fact!"