Is a 'Dark Force' Pushing the Universe Apart?

July 21, 2008

Is a 'Dark Force' Pushing the Universe Apart?

"Reality is nothing but a collective hunch." Lily Tomlin -Comedian and philosopher.

No observation in recent history of science has been more disturbing than the discovery of dark energy in 1998.

Dark energy seems to differ from all forms of energy and matter previously known, in that its not associated with any particles or waves. It is just there.

What happened in 1998 was that observations of supernovas in distant galaxies indicated that the universe was accelerating in that could best be explained by the existence of a dark energy.

Recent measurements with telescopes and space probes of the distribution of mass in M31 -the largest galaxy in the neighborhood of the Milky Way- and other galaxies led to the recognition that galaxies are filled with dark matter and have shown that a mysterious force—a dark energy—fills the vacuum of empty space, accelerating the universe's expansion.

Astronomers now recognize that the eventual fate of the universe is inextricably tied to the presence of dark energy and dark matter.The current standard model for cosmology describes a universe that is 70 percent dark energy, 25 percent dark matter, and only 5 percent normal matter.

We don't know what dark energy is, or why it exists. On the other hand, particle theory tells us that, at the microscopic level, even a perfect vacuum bubbles with quantum particles that are a natural source of dark energy. But a naïve calculation of the dark energy generated from the vacuum yields a value 10120 times larger than the amount we observe. Some unknown physical process is required to eliminate most, but not all, of the vacuum energy, leaving enough left to drive the accelerating expansion of the universe.

A new theory of particle physics is required to explain this physical process.

The universe as we see it contains only the stable relics and leftovers of the big bang: unstable particles have decayed away with time, and the perfect symmetries have been broken as the universe has cooled, but the structure of space remembers all the particles and forces we can no longer see around us.

Particle accelerators such as the Large Hadron Collider at CERN and FermiLab pump energy into empty space to create the particles and uncover the symmetries that existed in the earliest universe. As accelerators go to higher energies, we probe ever closer to the Big Bang and the beginning.

Ultimately we must combine what we learn from accelerators with what we learn by detecting the surviving relics of the big bang, using telescopes in the ground, such as IceCube, a neutrino telescope currently under construction at the South Pole, and in the sky. It is by synthesizing what we learn from each of these technologies that we will make the two ends meet and develop a comprehensive picture of the universe and how it evolved.

The image above by Erik Leitch is the University of Chicago's Sunyaev-Zeldovich Array at Owens Valley, Calif. The SZA is a radio telescope consisting of eight dishes, each measuring 3.5 meters across (two dishes are not visible in this photograph). A team including researchers from four institutions led by the University of Chicago's John Carlstrom is using the array to determine when dark energy began interfering with galaxy cluster formation and thus became an important force in the evolution of the universe. Photo by Erik Leitch, University of Chicago.

Posted by Casey Kazan.

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Posted by: Robert I. Marsh II | July 21, 2008 at 04:55 AM

I'm glad you made a post about the expanding Universe. It's an idea that I'm starting to see some holes in as of late, especially after watching an episode of The Universe on the History Channel.

My problem is this: galaxies that are farther away appear to be accelerating away from us at greater rates than those that are near. The physicists the History Channel had, the Asian/Pacific islander guy, took that to mean that the farther away a galaxy is, the faster it's moving away.

My problem is that he ignores or forgot our view of those galaxies that are the farthest out reaches further back in time. That means a galaxy that's 13 billion light years away, that appears to be moving away much faster than one that's 5 billion light years away, was moving that much faster 13 billion years ago!

It may have slowed down to a speed comparable to the galaxy 5 billion LY away over the 8 billion year gap.

The conclusion that I draw, is that the early Universe was expanding at a much faster rate as we go back to the big bang compared to the present. That seems to fit the inflationary model of the Universe where there was a sudden burst of expansion early on.

All of those galaxies that are far far from Earth would appear to be extremely red-shifted, not because they're accellerating away from other galaxies faster than others, but because we're seeing the events that took place billions of years ago. Perhaps those far away galaxies have since slowed to match galaxies that are closer to home or even reversed. Who knows.

It does keep us from saying that galaxies that are the furthest away are currently accelerating away faster and faster than closer neighbors. Just because they were right after the big bang does not indicate what they're doing now.

Posted by: Nolan Eakins | July 21, 2008 at 06:01 AM

The thing that "disturbs" me the most is that this article states that "No observation in recent history of science has been more disturbing than the discovery of dark energy in 1998." This insinuates a fact not in evidence. Dark Matter was not discovered it is rather a supposition or hypothesis. There are other ideas which do not need such a great leap of "Faith" to support them.

Posted by: Leyland O'Leary | July 21, 2008 at 07:52 AM

1998? I can clearly remember discussing dark matter at the University of Technology, Sydney, in 1984.

Posted by: Barrie O'Leary | July 22, 2008 at 03:23 AM

Ths doesn't tell you what dark matter is exactly:

Dark matter is the hypothesized field of non-luminous matter around galaxies, believed to be made of the dead stars or other 'space debris'. It (if it exists) would explain the unusual ways our galaxies behave when they are around each other. Current estimates estimate there is up to 6000% more dark matter than luminous matter in the universe.

Just thought you should know. :P

Posted by: Summer Glau | July 25, 2008 at 05:02 PM

just a thought, if all particles have anti particles then why cant gravity have anti gravity thus dark energy

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