New theory links neutrino's slight mass to accelerating universe expansion

University of Washington News Office ^ | 27 July 2004 | Vince Stricherz

[PatrickHenry]

Neutrinos, dark energy, cosmological expansion, and the fate of the universe, all in one thread.

[PatrickHenry]

Science list Ping! This is an elite subset of the Evolution list.
See the list's description in my freeper homepage. Then FReepmail me to be added or dropped.

[TexasCajun]

But did they consider the coefficient of gravity?

[BenLurkin]

Aha!

I knew it!

[searchandrecovery]

Damn the neutrinos, full speed ahead!

[BikerNYC]

Neutrinos, dark energy, cosmological expansion, and the fate of the universe, all in one thread.

I know. Very cool. I'm not going to be able to stand up for the next ten minutes.

[PatrickHenry]

Anyone who wants to glance at the title and then post the usual stuff like:

1. Bush did it.
2. Daschle is deeply sadened.
3. It's only a theory.
4. Some full-screen Star Trek pic.
5. Etc.

is certainly free to do so, but please address your posts to someone other than me.

[Mycroft Holmes]

Interesting ping.

[Constitution Day]

BTTT.

[Doctor Stochastic]

Neutrinos have mass. Clams have legs.

[VadeRetro]

OK, this is it. I'm lost. Really lost.

[fooman]

indeed.

[djf]

Here is an email I wrote on May 28 of this year:



Hey,

OK, about ten years ago, I had fantasies that I was a good cosmological theorist, with deep, penetrating understanding of the cosmos.

So I mucked around with the standard universal constants and plain old physical models and derived the following equation:

Mu = (8 Pi/3)(C cubed Tu/G)

where Mu is the mass of the universe, Tu is the age, C is the speed of light, and G is the universal constant of gravitation.

I even wrote it on a slip of paper and hung it over my desk at work hoping, I don't know, maybe people would bow when they passed me or something.


So, the other night, I'm reading a short treatise, and Lo! and Behold! and whatever else, here it comes, on page 2:

a = CTu = 2GMu / C squared !!!!!! (1)

Yay!!

Not that it's all that important, but what it means is: The mass of the universe is growing linearly with the time, but the volume is growing as the cube of the time, so the density is falling as the square of the time. It basically means it's getting bigger and fatter but in a weird way, kind of evaporating.

But don't start packing yur bags or getting your knickers in a knot, it will take trillions of years.

So I'm writing this note to brag a little, after all, I beat them stupid russkies by six years, and they even forgot the right coefficient to determine the volume of a sphere!
Too much vodka, I guess.


References
(1) Dimensionless constants of the fundamental physical interactions viewed by the model of expansive nondecelerative universe
Sima, Sukenik, Sukenikova
Slovak Technical University, Bratislava, Slovakia 1999

http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?1991Ap%26SS.178..169S
http://xxx.arxiv.cornell.edu/abs/gr-qc/9910094

[VadeRetro]

Ya know, if you count all the weasel-words like "could" and "if" in that article, it might as well not say anything.

[js1138]

Danger Will Robinson, he's lost in space.

[tiamat]

Thought you should see this...

;-)

[VadeRetro]

I thought the "acceleron" was a bad Intel knockoff.

[js1138]

That would be the Deceleron.

[inquest]

These articles drive me nuts sometimes:

Now three University of Washington physicists are suggesting the two discoveries are integrally linked through one of the strangest features of the universe, dark energy, a linkage they say could be caused by a previously unrecognized subatomic particle they call the "acceleron."

Dark energy was negligible in the early universe, but now it accounts for about 70 percent of the cosmos.

And that's the only introduction it gives us to "dark energy". Nothing about what it actually is or believed to be, only the fact that there's a lot more of it now than in the old days. As if that helps elucidate anything.

And 70% by what standard of measurement? Volume? Weight? Mojo? I just wish they'd throw us a bone once in awhile.