There are pretty math pathways to dark matter, though, and they tend to be more compelling reasons to believe there is something that fits the notion of a parti

There are pretty math pathways to dark matter, though, and they tend to be more compelling reasons to believe there is something that fits the notion of a particle that we can't detect (or is very difficult to detect). Specifically, bariogenesis calculations, given the current standard model, actually require dark matter--it's the label we've arrived at--as a result. Observations led to the hypothesis, calculations led to more evidence.