Although it was discovered almost a century ago that the Universe is expanding, the driving force behind this phenomenon remains a mystery. Astrophysicists have theorized that the so-called “dark energy”, which constitutes up to 70% of the universe, could be the answer, but they have not been able to determine what it is for sure.
Professors Artyom Astashenok and Aleksander Tepliakov of the Federal Baltic University have presented cosmological models that define the limits of the universe without “dark energy”, publishing the results of their research in the International Journal of Modern Physics D.
As Professor Astashenok pointed out, according to the press service of the university, scientists have long known the Casimir effect, named after a Dutch physicist, who describes the pull between two metal plates in a vacuum. Quantum theory suggests that particles appear and disappear there, interacting with the plates, which represent some kind of limit. As a result, a minor pull appears.
Researchers theorize that the same could happen in space, but results in additional repulsion, which accelerates the expansion of the universe.
“In other words, there really isn’t” dark energy “but there is a manifestation of the limits of the Universe. However, this does not mean that it ends somewhere, but we could face a complex topology. We can draw parallels with the Earth. It has no limits but is limited. The difference between the Earth and the Universe is that we deal with two-dimensional space and three-dimensional space, ”he explained.
Mystery of ‘Dark Energy
It was discovered almost a century ago that the universe is expanding and then scientists discovered that this is happening with a certain acceleration, which regular matter cannot explain. The expansion was explained by the “dark energy”, which has particular qualities and fills the universe. The name is said to be provisional, since no one knows for sure what it is.
According to reports, this enigmatic energy constitutes 70% of the universe, which also consists of “dark matter” (20%) and regular matter (4%). There are many theories about why the Universe is expanding and what this “dark energy” is, but nobody has solved the mystery yet. The team at the Federal Baltic University has mathematically explained its model of the universe and has no contradiction between its expansion and the universal law of gravitation.
