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Has physicist's gravity theory solved 'impossible' dark energy riddle?
www.theguardian.com ^ | Sat 25 Jan 2020 06.40 EST | Hannah Devlin Science correspondent

Posted on 01/27/2020 6:34:00 AM PST by Red Badger

Prof Claudia de Rham’s ‘massive gravity’ theory could explain why universe expansion is accelerating

Cosmologists don’t enter their profession to tackle the easy questions, but there is one paradox that has reached staggering proportions.

Since the big bang, the universe has been expanding, but the known laws of physics suggest that the inward tug of gravity should be slowing down this expansion. In reality, though, the universe is ballooning at an accelerating rate.

Scientists have come up with a name – dark energy – for the mysterious agent that is allowing the cosmos to expand so rapidly and which is estimated to account for 70% of the contents of the universe. But ultimately nobody knows what the stuff actually is.

“It’s the big elephant in the room,” says Prof Claudia de Rham, a theoretical physicist at Imperial College. “It’s very frustrating.”

Change could be afoot. De Rham has pioneered a radical theory that could hold the key to why the universe is expanding faster and faster and explain the nature of dark energy. The theory, known as massive gravity, modifies Einstein’s general relativity, positing that the hypothetical particles (gravitons) that mediate the gravitational force themselves have a mass. In Einstein’s version, gravitons are assumed to be massless.

If gravitons have a mass, then gravity is expected to have a weaker influence on very large distance scales, which could explain why the expansion of the universe has not been reined in.

“One possibility is that you may not need to have dark energy – or rather, gravity itself fulfils that role,” says De Rham.

The work marks a breakthrough in a century-long quest to build a working theory of massive gravity....

(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; Business/Economy; History; Science
KEYWORDS: astronomy; claudiaderham; darkenergy; darkforce; darkmatter; einstein; gravitons; gravity; massivegravity; physics; science; speedofdark; stringtheory; universe
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1 posted on 01/27/2020 6:34:01 AM PST by Red Badger
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To: SunkenCiv

Dark Energy Ping!.......................


2 posted on 01/27/2020 6:35:15 AM PST by Red Badger (Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain.......... ..)
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To: Red Badger

Or, a lack thereof if this man’s theory is proven correct.
If Graviton’s do indeed have mass then the Dark Matter Theory is blown up. As it stands now it is merely a construct to attempt to explain what they do not understand.


3 posted on 01/27/2020 6:41:13 AM PST by ocrp1982 (ll)
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To: ocrp1982

As it stands now it is merely a construct to attempt to explain what they do not understand”

Also known as “science of the day”


4 posted on 01/27/2020 6:43:05 AM PST by ConservativeDude
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To: ocrp1982

True.

So is Gravity..................


5 posted on 01/27/2020 6:44:45 AM PST by Red Badger (Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain.......... ..)
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To: Red Badger

I thought gravity was a distortion in space-time


6 posted on 01/27/2020 6:44:50 AM PST by from occupied ga (Your government is your most dangerous enemy)
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To: Red Badger

I was pondering something along these lines a few weeks ago.

If gravity has waves then would gravitational waves ripple back to the center once it reached the edge of the expansion? - similar to when a rock is thrown in a pond and it the wave reaches the edge of the pond and bounces back toward where the rock entered.

If it did would the resulting interference/cancellation result in an approximation of the delta between the current expansion rate and the anticipated rate?


7 posted on 01/27/2020 6:45:08 AM PST by reed13k (For evil to triumph it is only necessary that good men do nothing)
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To: from occupied ga

It is, but what causes it to distort?.........


8 posted on 01/27/2020 6:45:17 AM PST by Red Badger (Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain.......... ..)
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To: reed13k

That sounds feasible, but maybe they have not reached ‘The Edge’ yet...................


9 posted on 01/27/2020 6:46:11 AM PST by Red Badger (Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain.......... ..)
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To: Red Badger

Not settled science yet.


10 posted on 01/27/2020 6:46:24 AM PST by AU72
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To: AU72

At least Not until they can blame it on Trump..................


11 posted on 01/27/2020 6:47:23 AM PST by Red Badger (Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain.......... ..)
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To: Red Badger
It is, but what causes it to distort?.........

Mass?

12 posted on 01/27/2020 6:48:00 AM PST by from occupied ga (Your government is your most dangerous enemy)
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To: Red Badger

I am a banker, not a physicist. Seems to me that explanation would blow a huge hole in the Big Bang theory, because, my understanding was that the Big Bang occurred when the universe collapsed into a very small, tightly compacted mass.

In a related matter, read Hebrews 11:3. Interesting.


13 posted on 01/27/2020 6:48:07 AM PST by RatRipper
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To: ConservativeDude

As it stands now it is merely a construct to attempt to explain what they do not understand”
Also known as “science of the day”


and global warming, global cooling, climate change etc


14 posted on 01/27/2020 6:49:41 AM PST by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere.)
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To: from occupied ga

yes, but WHY?................


15 posted on 01/27/2020 6:50:34 AM PST by Red Badger (Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain.......... ..)
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To: Red Badger

Or....if gravitational waves move at the speed of light, maybe gravitational waves have been pulsing back and forth repeatedly since the start both adding to and slowing down expansion.

hmmmm


16 posted on 01/27/2020 6:51:08 AM PST by reed13k (For evil to triumph it is only necessary that good men do nothing)
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To: reed13k
would gravitational waves ripple back to the center once it reached the edge of the expansion?

What are you - some sort of flat universe nutjob? (just kidding, of course...)

17 posted on 01/27/2020 6:52:32 AM PST by Quality_Not_Quantity (A law means nothing if it isnÂ’t followed.)
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To: reed13k

Wouldn’t that make the Universe react like an accordion?..............OMG! WE’RE IN A GIANT POLKA RECORD!!!!................


18 posted on 01/27/2020 6:53:09 AM PST by Red Badger (Against stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain.......... ..)
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To: reed13k
I was pondering something along these lines a few weeks ago.

If gravity has waves then would gravitational waves ripple back to the center once it reached the edge of the expansion? - similar to when a rock is thrown in a pond and it the wave reaches the edge of the pond and bounces back toward where the rock entered.

If it did would the resulting interference/cancellation result in an approximation of the delta between the current expansion rate and the anticipated rate?

Awesome thought!

19 posted on 01/27/2020 6:54:28 AM PST by edwinland
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To: Red Badger

Gravity is by far the weakest fundamental force.

Dark mater/dark energy as an explanation for how the dust and atoms in the universe managed to clump together and form the stars and galaxies ignores the contributions of the far more powerful electromagnetic forces.


20 posted on 01/27/2020 6:55:54 AM PST by null and void (The government wants to disarm us after 243 yrs 'cuz they plan to do things we would shoot them for!)
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