SPACE.com -- 'Big Wave' Theory Offers Alternative to Dark Energy
9/18/09 2:07 PM
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'Big Wave'
Theory Offers
Alternative to
Dark Energy
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By Clara Moskowitz
Staff Writer
posted: 17 August 2009
05:56 pm ET
This story was updated at 2:40 p.m.
on Aug. 18.
Mathematicians have proposed an
alternative explanation for the
accelerating expansion of the
universe that does not rely on the
mystifying idea of dark energy.
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According to the new proposition,
the universe is not accelerating, as
observations suggest. Instead, an expanding wave flowing
through space-time has caused distant galaxies to appear to be
accelerating away from us. This big wave, initiated after the Big
Bang that is thought to have sparked the universe, could
explain why objects today appear to be farther away from us
than they should be according to the Standard Model of
cosmology.
"We're saying that maybe the resulting expanding wave is
actually causing the anomalous acceleration," said Blake
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SPACE.com -- 'Big Wave' Theory Offers Alternative to Dark Energy
9/18/09 2:07 PM
actually causing the anomalous acceleration," said Blake
Temple of the University of California, Davis. "We're saying that
dark energy may not really be the correct explanation."
The researchers derived a set of equations describing
expanding waves that fit Einstein's theory of general relativity,
and which could also account for the apparent acceleration.
Temple outlines the new idea with Joel Smoller of the University
of Michigan in the Aug. 17 issue of the journal Proceedings of
the National Academy of Sciences.
While more research will be needed to see if the idea holds up,
"the research could change the way astronomers view the
composition of our universe," according to a summary from the
journal.
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To convince other cosmologists, the new model will have to
pass muster with further inquiry.
"There are many observational tests of the standard
cosmological model that the proposed model must pass, aside
from the late phase of accelerated expansion," said Avi Loeb,
director of the Institute for Theory and Computation at the
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. "These include
big bang nucleosynthesis, the quantitative details of the
microwave background anisotropies, the Lyman-alpha forest,
and galaxy surveys. The authors do not discuss how their
model compares to these tests, and whether the number of free
parameters they require in order to fit these observational
constraints is smaller than in the standard model. Until they do
so, it is not clear why this alternative model should be regarded
as advantageous."
Johns Hopkins University astrophysicist Mario Livio agreed that
to be seriously considered, the model must be able to predict
properties of the universe that astronomers can measure.
He said the real test "is in whether they are able to reproduce
all the observed cosmological parameters (as determined, e.g.
by a combination of the Hubble Constant and the parameters
determined by the CMB observations). To only produce an
apparent acceleration is in itself interesting, but not particularly
meaningful."
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SPACE.com -- 'Big Wave' Theory Offers Alternative to Dark Energy
9/18/09 2:07 PM
Inconvenient truths
Dark energy is itself a hasty fix to an inconvenient truth
discovered by astronomers in the late 1990s: that the universe
is expanding, and the rate of this expansion seems to be
constantly picking up speed.
To explain this startling finding, cosmologists invoked dark
energy, a hypothetical form of energy that is pulling the
universe apart in all directions (note that dark energy is wholly
separate from the equally mysterious concept of dark matter - a
hypothetical form of matter that populates the universe,
interacting gravitationally with normal matter, but which cannot
be seen with light). In this interpretation, the whole universe is
blowing up like a balloon, and from any given point within it, all
distant objects appear to be speeding away from you.
But not everyone is happy with the dark energy explanation.
"It just seems like an unnatural correction to the equations - it's
like a fudge factor," Temple told SPACE.com. "The equations
don't make quite as much physical sense when you put it in.
You just put it in to fit the data."
Temple and Smoller think the idea of an expanding wave
makes more sense.
"At this stage we think this a very plausible theory," Temple
said. "We're saying there isn't any acceleration. The galaxies
are displaced from where they're supposed to be because we're
in the aftermath of a wave that put those galaxies in a slightly
different position."
Ripples in a pond
Temple compared the wave to what happens when you throw a
rock into a pond. In this case, the rock would be the Big Bang,
and the concentric ripples that result are like a series of waves
throughout the universe. Later on, when the first galaxies start
to form, they are forming inside space-time that has already
been displaced from where it would have been without the
wave. So when we observe these galaxies with telescopes,
they don't appear to be where we would expect if there had
never been a big wave.
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/090817-dark-energy-alternative.html
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SPACE.com -- 'Big Wave' Theory Offers Alternative to Dark Energy
9/18/09 2:07 PM
never been a big wave.
One potential issue with this idea is that it might require a big
coincidence.
For the universe to appear to be accelerating at the same rate
in all directions, we in the Milky Way would have to be near a
local center, at the spot where an expansion wave was initiated
early in the Big Bang when the universe was filled with
radiation.
Temple concedes that this is a coincidence, but said it's
possible that we are merely in the center of a smaller wave that
affects the galaxies we can see from our vantage point - we
need not be in the center of the entire universe for the idea to
work.
You Decide: What's the Greatest Mystery in Science?
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mwbiggs wrote: posted 17 August 2009, 6:19 pm ET
Ok. If you accept this theory then you should go
ahead and just admit that God created the universe
and placed the earth at the center.
I don't think it's going to fly very well.
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Imfamous
wrote:
posted 17 August 2009, 6:22 pm ET
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/090817-dark-energy-alternative.html
Page 4 of 8
SPACE.com -- 'Big Wave' Theory Offers Alternative to Dark Energy
9/18/09 2:07 PM
If this really is true, say goodbye to the "big rip"
theory.
Reply |
Bill_Wright
wrote:
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posted 17 August 2009, 6:30 pm ET
I disagree that the article states that we are in the
center of the universe. When it rains on a pond there
are multiple waves all rippling outwards. We may
simply be near the center of one rain-drop. We have
*not* examined the universe in all directions, nor
have we measured the Hubble constant carefully in all
directions. All I see in this article is the fact that we
can stop yapping about dark this and dark that and
simply continue with making measurements and
developing new theses (to be shot down at a later
date).
-- Bill
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xxMIKExx
wrote:
posted 17 August 2009, 6:30 pm ET
finally, some real opposition to dark energy.
"it's possible that we are merely in the center of
smaller wave that affects the galaxies we can see
from our vantage point"
could these smaller waves be the shockwaves of
massive supernovae like the kind that form black
holes? the bigger the supernovae, the bigger the
wave. That would also explain why not all the objects
in the universe are moving away from each other and
why galaxies ccollide so often
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gahmuret
wrote:
posted 17 August 2009, 6:34 pm ET
Sure, it's a bit odd, but makes more sense than "dark
energy," which is nothing more than a term for the
fudge factor they have to put into the equations.
Twenty years from now, physicists will laugh at the
very idea of "dark energy."
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lowrieder
wrote:
posted 17 August 2009, 6:44 pm ET
I am very interested to see more on this theory. I
have always thought that Dark Energy (and Dark
Matter for that matter) were a little weak in
supporting facts. To me the jury is still out, and
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/090817-dark-energy-alternative.html
Page 5 of 8
SPACE.com -- 'Big Wave' Theory Offers Alternative to Dark Energy
9/18/09 2:07 PM
looking into a few other thoeries to explain the data
we have would be welcomed.
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smirking wrote: posted 17 August 2009, 6:45 pm ET
Seems a bit of a stretch but finally someone looking
for answers instead of making them up. Dark energy
was indeed a "hasty fix".
Reply |
PridefulDork
wrote:
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posted 17 August 2009, 6:53 pm ET
Well, if the universe is a sphere with its center
everywhere and its circumference nowhere, I guess
we would be at the center. As would everything else,
which would account for the red-shift.
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posted 17 August 2009, 7:04 pm ET
normancopeland wrote:
Who's idiot idea was that. Ciao.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/08/0
90813-mount-st-helens-video-nasa.html
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Rascal_sage
wrote:
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posted 17 August 2009, 7:06 pm ET
The mystery is already solved.
www.dark-energy.org
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