It is very small worms it may be driving the universe’s rapid expansion, scientists say. These tiny worms are always born from the same place due to subtle quantum effects.
If confirmed by experiments and observations, wormholes can be an important source of information about quantum gravity – the theoretical synthesis of the fundamental forces of the universe, which is often considered the Holy Grail of theoretical physics.
Many star reviews show that our universe is expanding at an increasing rate. However, Einstein general theory of relativity it means that if the universe consists only of the types of particles and radiation that we know, such a behavior of the atmosphere is impossible.
In order to reconcile the observations of the expansion of the universe with this theory, scientists have proposed that the atmosphere is filled with a strange substance that cannot be detected by ground or space-based experiments.
This strange thing, called the power of darknessit interacts very little with other types of matter and fields, therefore, there is currently no reliable information about its nature or origin.
In a recent study published on April 5 in the journal Physical Examination Dresearchers have presented a new candidate for dark energy: subatomic wormholes – or tunnels that connect different areas in space.
Related: Wormholes can bend light like black holes – and that could be the key to finding them
According to the authors, these wormholes are always born and destroyed in the empty space because of quantum effects. This is similar to how particles are produced near the event skies black holesleading to Hawking radiation; or how electron-positron pairs are produced by a strong electric field – a phenomenon known as the Schwinger effect.
However, the creation of these wormholes is somewhat different from other phenomena because their mathematical explanation requires the effects of gravity – a more complex task that is not well understood.
These difficulties in calculating quantum gravitational phenomena prevented the authors from accurately determining the worm’s birth rate. However, using a method known as Euclidean quantum gravity, they showed that if about 10 billion worms were to collide in a cubic centimeter per second, the energy they produced would be would be sufficient to explain the currently observed rate of expansion of the universe.
“Although our result is derived from Euclidean gravity … it is possible that our change may hold for other theories of gravity as well,” co-author of the study. Stylianos Tsilioukasdoctoral student at the University of Thessaly and the National Observatory of Athens, told Live Science via email.
Furthermore, the team’s analysis showed that their model of dark energy is significantly better than the most widely accepted theory, known as The Standard Cosmological Modelwhich suggests that dark energy has an independent power.
“According to our proposal dark energy can change over time,” said Tsilioukas. “This is a big advantage because recent observations suggest that the rate of expansion of the universe is different in recent times than it was in the early universe.”
However, no matter how successful the researchers’ model is in explaining the general characteristics of dark energy, the validity of any physical theory must be tested with experimental data. And for now, that theory remains untested.
In the future, it is increasing accuracy of field tests and the observations should enable astronomers to determine in greater detail the rate of expansion of the universe, as well as measure other observable manifestations of dark energy. This could enable researchers to test whether this newly developed model of dark energy is correct.
In the meantime, the authors plan to continue to develop their theoretical analysis. “We are currently working on a model that measures the rate of worm formation.” Tsilioukas said. “The research looks promising and we hope to publish the results soon.”
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