MessageToEagle.com - Dark energy, the biggest mystery of the Universe is more unknown than is known, according to scientists.
It's one of the many unsolved mysteries of science!
“Observations tell us that about 5% of the universe is made up of ordinary matter; 22% corresponds to dark matter, which
we know exists because it interacts gravitationally with ordinary matter; another 73% is dark energy, which is known to be
there because otherwise one would not be able to account for the accelerating expansion of the universe,” explains Irene
Sendra, a researcher in the Department of Theoretical Physics and History of Science of the UPV/EHU’s Faculty of Science and Technology.
“We are trying to find out a bit more about what dark energy is,” she adds.
If dark energy did not exist, the gravitational pull exerted
by matter would slow down the expansion of the universe, but observations have concluded that the opposite is the case.
Dark energy is what makes the universe expand in an accelerating way, and contributing towards understanding its nature is
the basis of the research Sendra has done as part of her PhD thesis entitled:
“Cosmology in an accelerating universe: observations and phenomenology”.
The research starts with the hypothesis that dark energy could be dynamic.The most widely accepted model, known as the
Lambda-CDM, explains the acceleration of the universe by means of the cosmological constant, whose equation of state
would have a value of -1, constant throughout the whole evolution of the universe.
“We look for a dynamic, dark energy that would vary over time; we apply various models to the observable data, we
play around with small disturbances, and we see whether they adapt better than a constant," explains Sendra.
Making use of mathematical and statistical tools, the values that the observation proposes for the parameters studied are
compared with those proposed by the model.
“So, through many iterations, we can see which values would take the constants of our model. The equation of state of
dark energy is worth practically -1 now, but it appears to have evolved from different
values in the past; however, there is still a high percentage of error in determining these values.
This diagram reveals changes in the rate of expansion since the universe's birth 15 billion years ago. The more shalow the curve, the faster the rate of expansion. The curve changes noticeably about 7.5 billion years ago, when objects in the universe began
flying apart as a faster rate. Astronomers theorize that the faster expansion rate is due to a mysterious, dark force that is
pulling galaxies apart. Credit: Ann Feild (STScI)
In this PhD thesis, besides studying the equation of state of dark energy, a new model has been proposed and it would
unite dark energy with dark matter.
“They could be the same thing that is manifested in a different way depending on the context; we have explained the
effect of both of themthrough one single component, and the observations give better results in this model than
in others that try to unite matter anddark energy,” Sendra explains.
Finally, Sendra has peered at the oldest universe by means of the study of its cosmic microwave background.
“It is the most distant proof we have of the universe,” she comments, “and the study of it tells us that the actual
number of neutrinos is higher than three.Nevertheless, what we know for a fact, through the standard model of particles,
is that there are three kinds of neutrinos.
We have ended up with a somewhat strange value, so we are trying to account for that excess in the number of neutrinos”.
Sendra's proposal is heading in the direction of the string theory.
According to Sendra's results, this neutrino excess could be interpreted as the contribution of primordial gravitational
waves, caused by the interaction of cosmic strings at the time when the cosmic microwave background was produced.
Results that have yet to be published and obtained in collaboration with Adam Riess, the 2011 Nobel Prize Winner for
Physics, go further in that direction.
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MessageToEagle.com - Dark energy, the biggest mystery of the Universe is more unknown than is known, according to scientists.
These are different from the kind of stars producing gold when they explode.
The evidence for this comes from the measurement of various high-mass
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