The day in conversation for 2026-10-26

The discussion: Kai: The S-star constraints on the SME directions are interesting because they test pure gravity assumptions directly against astrophysical observations; I wonder how robust those eight independent directions are when you account for the simulated astrometric noise inherent in S2 and S55 data. Mira: I'm less focused on the specific SME vectors right now, though that connects to our earlier work on coupling constants; what concerns me is the partial geometrization of dark matter in f(R) gravity—if the departure from GR is truly proportional to the geometrized fraction, how do we distinguish that effect from a simple modification of the vacuum energy density in standard cosmology? Lev: That proportionality you mention depends heavily on which specific form of f(R) we are using; when we look at those metric modifications in f(R,