The Universe expands faster than it creíaLa NASA confirms that the Great Red Spot of Jupiter continues menguandoOcho things that are unusual that you may not know about the Big Bang
How fast it’s expanding the Universe? The issue has become one of the central issues of Cosmology, but for decades scientists are at an impasse. In fact, the two primary methods used to make this calculation differ by 9%. It may not sound like much, but in reality it is a discrepancy colossal.
The expansion of the Universe is is described with a number of extremely particular, the Hubble constant . The first method to calculate its value using the cosmic microwave background (CMB for its acronym in English), a relic of the original heat of the Big Bang, and crawled across him, what was the rate of expansion of the early Universe. The second uses what astronomers call “scales away”. The calculation is based on a type of variable star, the Cepheids, whose brightness fluctuates regularly, at a rate that is related to its luminosity absolute. Known for its flare, it is possible to measure the distances to those stars, and those distances can be used to know how far are the nearest galaxies. By comparison of those distances with how fast the objects are moving away from us determines a value for the Hubble constant.
The worst/best idea of Einstein
The Hubble constant, or cosmological, it was introduced a century ago by Albert Einstein in his general theory of Relativity. And almost since then it is a real “stone in the shoe” for physicists . And is that, from the beginning, the differences between the theoretical prediction of this parameter and its measurement based on astronomical observations has been enormous, on the order of 10 raised to the 121. It is not surprising, therefore, that estimation is considered as the worst and least successful of all the history of Physics.
Now, a researcher from the University of Geneva (UNIGLE) has been proposed in an article to be published soon in Physics Letters B an approximation of the problem completely different. One that, apparently, could solve this inconsistency. The idea goes through ok another constant, the universal gravitation of Newton, which is also part of the equations of general relativity. The idea, which could be an important breakthrough has been welcomed by the scientific community, although you should still be implemented to generate predictions that can then be confirmed or rebutted experimentally.
“My job writes in his article Lucas Lombriser, sole author of the research – is in a new mathematical manipulation of the equations of general relativity that finally makes it possible to harmonize the theory and the observation of the cosmological constant”.
a century Ago, Einstein introduced the cosmological constant to make sure that his theory was compatible with a Universe he believed to be static and unchanging. But Edwin Hubble discovered that, quite to the contrary, the galaxies are moving away, and faster the more far away they are. That was the first proof that the Universe, far from being static, was expanding. To learn of the work of Hubble, Einstein regretted having introduced the cosmological constant, which in their eyes had become something useless, and even came to describe it as “the biggest mistake of my life.” In reality, the great physicist had contributed enormously valuable to the Science. Einstein was right even when it was thought wrong.
Expansion accelerated, the thing is complicated
In 1998, a new and surprising finding made things complicated even more. The Universe is not only expanding, but it did so in an accelerated manner. That is, each time growing faster and faster, as if a force, huge and mysterious what was inflating faster each time. Once again, s e invoked the cosmological constant to describe what physicists call “energy vacuum” , something whose nature is completely unknown (today we call it “dark energy”) but who must, by force, to be behind the accelerated expansion of the Universe.
The problem, however, remained the same: the theoretical value assigned to the cosmological constant, obtained from the accurate observation of the cosmic microwave background is very different from that observed. In this way, the so-called “problem of the cosmological constant,” became one of the major pitfalls of theoretical physics, and has mobilized hundreds of physicists around the world.
most of them examines it from all possible angles, the equations of relativity einsteniana, in a attempt almost desperate to find a silver lining to solve the issue. But until now there has been no luck, and even if you have already submitted a number of strategies, there is a general consensus around any of them.
Lombriser, for its part, has had the original idea of introducing a variation in the universal constant of gravitation of Newton, which, as has been said, it also appears in Einstein’s equations. And that means that the Universe in which we live becomes a special case among an infinite number of theoretical possibilities different.
After many attempts and assumptions, the mathematical approach of Lombriser implies that it is possible to calculate the parameter “omega-lambda” , which is another way of expressing the cosmological constant, and in a way that, in addition, it is much easier to manipulate.
this Is, without doubt, a great success, although in the initial phase. From now on, it will perform analysis to verify if the new framework proposed by Lombriser can be used to reinterpret or clarify other mysteries of cosmology. The physical has already been invited to numerous scientific conferences to explain his approach, which indicates the interest aroused by his novel idea.
