Uncommon Descent Serving The Intelligent Design Community

In case you wondered why dark energy is “the biggest unsolved problem in the universe”

Share
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Flipboard
Print
Email
possible evidence for dark energy/NASA, CXC, SAO,A.Vikhlinin et al.

Here’s Ethan Siegel’s explanation, supplemented by many charts, graphs, and photos:

The true fact of the matter is that, observationally, dark energy is behaving as though it’s a form of energy inherent to the fabric of space itself. WFIRST, NASA’s flagship astrophysics mission of the 2020s (after James Webb), should allow us to reduce the measured constraints on w down to the 1-or-2% level. If it still looks indistinguishable from a cosmological constant (with w = -1) then, we’ll have no choice but to reckon with the quantum vacuum itself.

Why does empty space have the properties that it does? Why is the zero-point energy of the fabric of the Universe a positive, non-zero value? And why does dark energy have the behavior we observe it to have, rather than any other?

There are an infinite number of models we can cook up to describe what we see, but the simplest model — of a non-zero cosmological constant — requires no additions or modifications to match the data. Until we make progress on understanding the quantum vacuum itself, dark energy will remain the biggest unsolved puzzle in all of modern theoretical physics.

Ethan Siegel, “This Is Why Dark Energy Is The Biggest Unsolved Problem In The Universe” at Forbes

Well, it keeps cosmology writable and cosmologists in business.

See also: Rob Sheldon: Are “multiple measurements ”closing in on dark energy? Nope.

Researchers: Either dark energy or string theory is wrong. Or both are. But dark energy is so glitzy! Isn’t it a line of cosmetics already?

Researchers: The symmetrons needed to explain dark energy were not found

Rob Sheldon: Has dark energy finally been found? In pop science mags?

Are recent dark energy findings a blow for multiverse theory?

and

Science at sunset: Dark energy might make a multiverse hospitable to life… if it exists

Comments
as to, "dark energy will remain the biggest unsolved puzzle in all of modern theoretical physics". That reminds me of this video from Dr. Hugh Ross,
1 in 10^120 Fine Tuning of Dark Energy of the Universe - Hugh Ross - video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7gWX7BUA3U
In the preceding video Dr. Ross mentions a paper, by atheistic astrophysicists studying the 1 in 10^120 fine tuning of dark energy, in which they honestly confessed that, "Arranging the universe as we think it is arranged would have required a miracle.,,," Of course that 'miracle' is unacceptable for them so their solution was to try to claim that "we don't live in a universe with a true cosmological constant".
Disturbing Implications of a Cosmological Constant - Dyson, Kleban, Susskind (each are self proclaimed atheists) - 2002 Excerpt: "Arranging the universe as we think it is arranged would have required a miracle.,,," “The question then is whether the origin of the universe can be a naturally occurring fluctuation, or must it be due to an external agent which starts the system out in a specific low entropy state?” page 19: “A unknown agent [external to time and space] intervened [in cosmic history] for reasons of its own.,,,” Page 21 "The only reasonable conclusion is that we don't live in a universe with a true cosmological constant". http://arxiv.org/pdf/hep-th/0208013.pdf
Although they tried to claim that "we don't live in a universe with a true cosmological constant", here are the 9 lines of evidence that Dr. Ross mentioned in his video which came out shortly after the preceding paper was listed as a preprint on the Los Alamos’s website. Evidences which made Dyson, Kleban and Susskind pull their paper from consideration,,,
Accumulating Evidence for Dark Energy and Supernatural Design - 2011 Excerpt: I (Hugh Ross) often refer to nine different lines of observational evidence that establish dark energy’s reality and dominance in my talks. These nine are: 1.radial velocities of type Ia supernovae; 2.WMAP of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR); 3.ground-based measures of the CMBR; 4.Sloan Digital Sky Survey of galaxies and galaxy clusters; 5.Two-Degree Field Survey of galaxies; 6.gravitational lens measurements of distant galaxies and quasars; 7.distributions of radio galaxies; 8.galaxy velocity distributions; and 9.x-ray emissions from galaxy clusters.
In the last several years, astronomers have added seven additional lines of observational evidence confirming the reality of the finely tuned cosmological constant, bringing the total to sixteen. These seven are:
10.Lyman-alpha forest measurements; 11.polarization measures of the cosmic microwave background radiation; 12.stellar ages; 13.cosmic inhomogeneities; 14.gamma-ray bursts; 15.evolution of galaxy clustering; and 16.galaxy cluster angular size measurements. http://www.reasons.org/articles/rtb-s-dark-energy-articles
In the video Dr. Ross also mentions several verses in the bible that speak of God 'stretching out the heavens'. (Job 9:8; Isaiah 40:22; Isaiah 44:24; Isaiah 48:13; Zechariah 12:1; Psalm 104:2; Isaiah 42:5; Isaiah 45:12; Isaiah 51:13; Jeremiah 51:15; Jeremiah 10:12.)
Bible References to God Stretching Out the Heavens http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/Nave-html/Faithpathh/stretch.html
The following verse, since it offhandedly makes reference to Jesus walking on the sea, is my favorite out of the group of verses:
Job 9:8 He alone stretches out the heavens and treads on the waves of the sea.
Of related interest, , another major problem in trying to unify quantum mechanics and general relativity is that when theorists try to combine the two theories, then the resulting theory predicts that spacetime, atoms, and the universe itself should all be literally torn apart. Here are a few references that get this point across.
The 2 most dangerous numbers in the universe are threatening the end of physics – Jessica Orwig – Jan. 14, 2016 Excerpt: Dangerous No. 2: The strength of dark energy ,,, you should be able to sum up all the energy of empty space to get a value representing the strength of dark energy. And although theoretical physicists have done so, there’s one gigantic problem with their answer: “Dark energy should be 10^120 times stronger than the value we observe from astronomy,” Cliff said. “This is a number so mind-boggling huge that it’s impossible to get your head around … this number is bigger than any number in astronomy — it’s a thousand-trillion-trillion-trillion times bigger than the number of atoms in the universe. That’s a pretty bad prediction.” On the bright side, we’re lucky that dark energy is smaller than theorists predict. If it followed our theoretical models, then the repulsive force of dark energy would be so huge that it would literally rip our universe apart. The fundamental forces that bind atoms together would be powerless against it and nothing could ever form — galaxies, stars, planets, and life as we know it would not exist. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/two-most-dangerous-numbers-universe-194557366.html Cosmic coincidence spotted – Philip Ball – 2008 Excerpt: One interpretation of dark energy is that it results from the energy of empty space, called vacuum energy. The laws of quantum physics imply that empty space is not empty at all, but filled with particles popping in and out of existence. This particle ‘fizz’ should push objects apart, just as dark energy seems to require. But the theoretical value of this energy is immense — so huge that it should blow atoms apart, rather than just causing the Universe to accelerate. Physicists think that some unknown force nearly perfectly cancels out the vacuum energy, leaving only the amount seen as dark energy to push things apart. This cancellation is imperfect to an absurdly fine margin: the unknown ‘energy’ differs from the vacuum energy by just one part in 10^122. It seems incredible that any physical mechanism could be so finely poised as to reduce the vacuum energy to within a whisker of zero, but it seems to be so. http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080219/full/news.2008.610.html Goedel’s Way : Exploits into an Undecidable World Excerpt: “There are serious problems with the traditional view that the world is a space-time continuum. Quantum field theory and general relativity contradict each other. The notion of space-time breaks down at very small distances, because extremely massive quantum fluctuations (virtual particle/antiparticle pairs) should provoke black holes and space-time should be torn apart, which doesn’t actually happen.” – Gregory J. Chaitin , Francisco A. Doria, and Newton C. a. Da Costa
Yet since both quantum mechanics and general relativity are both tested to extreme levels of precision, and we can thus have a high level of confidence that both theories are true descriptions of reality
The Most Precisely Tested Theory in the History of Science – May 5, 2011 Excerpt: So, which of the two (general relativity or QED) is The Most Precisely Tested Theory in the History of Science? It’s a little tough to quantify a title like that, but I think relativity can claim to have tested the smallest effects. Things like the aluminum ion clock experiments showing shifts in the rate of a clock set moving at a few m/s, or raised by a foot, measure relativistic shifts of a few parts in 10^16. That is, if one clock ticks 10,000,000,000,000,000 times, the other ticks 9,999,999,999,999,999 times. That’s an impressively tiny effect, but the measured value is in good agreement with the predictions of relativity. In the end, though, I have to give the nod to QED, because while the absolute effects in relativity may be smaller, the precision of the measurements in QED is more impressive. Experimental tests of relativity measure tiny shifts, but to only a few decimal places. Experimental tests of QED measure small shifts, but to an absurd number of decimal places. The most impressive of these is the “anomalous magnetic moment of the electron,” expressed is terms of a number g whose best measured value is: g/2 = 1.001 159 652 180 73 (28) Depending on how you want to count it, that’s either 11 or 14 digits of precision (the value you would expect without QED is exactly 1, so in some sense, the shift really starts with the first non-zero decimal place), which is just incredible. And QED correctly predicts all those decimal places (at least to within the measurement uncertainty, given by the two digits in parentheses at the end of that). http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2011/05/05/the-most-precisely-tested-theo/
,,, and since Godel’s incompleteness theorem requires something to be ‘outside the circle’ of mathematics in order to explain why the mathematics that describe reality might be true in the first place,
"Gödel’s incompleteness theorem (1931), proves that there are limits to what can be ascertained by mathematics. Kurt Gödel halted the achievement of a unifying all-encompassing theory of everything in his theorem that: “Anything you can draw a circle around cannot explain itself without referring to something outside the circle—something you have to assume but cannot prove”. Stephen Hawking & Leonard Miodinow, The Grand Design (2010)
,,, then it is fairly safe to assume that something very powerful must be holding the universe together. ,,, For the Christian this should not be surprising. Two thousand years ago, Christianity predicted that in him all things hold together.
Colossians 1:17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Also of related note, when we rightly allow the Agent causality of God ‘back’ into physics, as the Christian founders of modern science originally envisioned,,,, (Isaac Newton, Michael Faraday, James Clerk Maxwell, and Max Planck, to name a few of the Christian founders),,, and as quantum mechanics itself now empirically demands (with the closing of the free will loophole by Anton Zeilinger and company), by rightly allowing the Agent causality of God ‘back’ into physics then that provides us with a very plausible resolution for the much sought after ‘theory of everything’ in that Christ’s resurrection from the dead provides an empirically backed reconciliation, via the Shroud of Turin, between quantum mechanics and general relativity into the much sought after ‘Theory of Everything”. Here are a few posts where I lay out and defend some of the evidence for that claim:
Overturning of the Copernican Principle by both General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics https://uncommondescent.com/intelligent-design/we-are-invited-to-consider-a-simpler-perspective-on-the-laws-of-physics/#comment-680427 (February 19, 2019) To support Isabel Piczek’s claim that the Shroud of Turin does indeed reveal a true ‘event horizon’, the following study states that ‘The bottom part of the cloth (containing the dorsal image) would have born all the weight of the man’s supine body, yet the dorsal image is not encoded with a greater amount of intensity than the frontal image.’,,, Moreover, besides gravity being dealt with, the shroud also gives us evidence that Quantum Mechanics was dealt with. In the following paper, it was found that it was not possible to describe the image formation on the Shroud in classical terms but they found it necessary to describe the formation of the image on the Shroud in discrete quantum terms. https://uncommondescent.com/intelligent-design/experiment-quantum-particles-can-violate-the-mathematical-pigeonhole-principle/#comment-673178
Verse:
Colossians 1:15-20 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
bornagain77
November 7, 2019
November
11
Nov
7
07
2019
03:56 AM
3
03
56
AM
PDT
For once, I agree with Siegel. Understanding the composition of the vacuum is essential to shedding a revealing light on many mysteries of physics. If physicists truly understood motion, they would realize that we exist in a vast 4-dimensional lattice of energetic particles (photons) without which nothing could move. Once you understand the true cause of inertial motion, the scales fall from your eyes and you suddenly know that there is no accelerated expansion of the universe and there is no need for dark matter either. This understanding will come only after a radical paradigm shift in fundamental physics. It's coming.FourFaces
November 6, 2019
November
11
Nov
6
06
2019
07:42 PM
7
07
42
PM
PDT
How old is the universe, Pearlman?DerekDiMarco
November 6, 2019
November
11
Nov
6
06
2019
05:03 PM
5
05
03
PM
PDT
Been there, done that. SPIRAL cosmological redshift (CR) hypothesis and model - explains why simple science attests there is no required, so no missing, dark energy and dark matter. SPIRAL ha the added advantage of predicting the CR and the increase of CR w/ distance, rather than having to react to that, as does SCM-LDM. volume II of the YeC 'Moshe Emes' series for Torah and science alignment.Pearlman
November 6, 2019
November
11
Nov
6
06
2019
03:02 PM
3
03
02
PM
PDT

Leave a Reply