Dark matter realism: How referential semantics restricts realism in contemporary fundamental physics

Abstract Philosophers increasingly treat semantics as decisive for realism about dark matter. I examine a recent proposal by Vaynberg (2024) anchored in Psillos’ causal–descriptive theory of reference (1999, 2012). I argue that, on the strong reference-fixing (kind-constitutive) reading required by semantic dark matter realism, the proposed $$\Lambda\text{CDM}$$ -motivated core description does not do the work assigned to it. It is compatible with entities we do not count as dark matter, and it excludes entities treated as live candidates in the contemporary landscape of models. I close by suggesting that this discrepancy between realist semantics and dark matter may be part of a general pattern in empirically scarce domains—the semantic specificity required by this realist strategy depends on forms of canonical confirmation that are not yet available.