is that right? You're referring to the fact that in general in modern physics a "field" implies a field-carrier particle. Lambda-CDM dark matter theories spec

is that right? You're referring to the fact that in general in modern physics a "field" implies a field-carrier particle. Lambda-CDM dark matter theories specifically posit that various astronomical discrepencies can be explained using particles that only interact gravitationally, with a huge number of degrees of freedom (e.g. the difference between the bullet cluster and the milky way alone represents a LARGE set of degrees of freedom). This seems rather different from a "single" field which may have a particle (that may or may not itself interact gravitationally), with only one additional degree of freedom.