More than one dark energy in the universe? There is a new hypothesis which is based on several sources of dark energy. This would also explain why the expansion of the universe is not the same in all areas.
The standard physics models assume that there must be a force in the universe that counteracts gravitation and thereby enables the cosmos to expand. How this dark energy works and what it consists of is entirely unknown to research.
The quintessence hypothesis assumes that dark energy draws its power from a scalar field, which interacts with a matter like a Higgs field. Other physicists, however, see the quantum fluctuations in the vacuum as a source of it.
Source of dark energy unexplained
So far, scientists cannot find a source of dark energy, despite numerous experiments and measurements that are carried out with the eROSITA X-ray telescope, among others. Experiments have ruled out some types of quintessential fields, including the symmetrons and the chameleon field, as sources.
Interaction of multiple scalar fields
Researchers at the Sorbonne University (Paris) around Yashar Akrami have postulated another hypothesis on this energy origin. The cause could not be a single scalar field, but the interaction of several quantum fields.
Yashar Akrami: “In our opinion, dark energy with multiple fields can be theoretically justified, and it predicts certain observable characteristics.” According to the model presented on the preprint server arXiv, the diverging force of dark energy arises because several quantum fields in the cosmos interact with each other and parallel with matter to a small extent.
Differences to the classic quintessence hypothesis
The classic quintessence hypothesis with a single scalar field assumes that inequalities are balanced out by fluctuations almost as fast as light. With this assumption, the energy is practically everywhere homogeneous and equally healthy. In the case of this energy from multiple fields, this would be significantly different.
Yashar Akrami: “The models we are looking at here describe a form of dark energy that can form clusters.” The interaction between the errors would lead to fluctuations to exist much longer. It would lead to local differences in the effect of energy. So the universe would have regions with slow expansion and regions with faster growth.
Measurements as an indication of multiple scalar fields
The hypothesis could thus also explain how astronomy achieves different values ??when measuring the speed of cosmic expansion. Another research group recently hypothesized lumped energy for this reason.
According to the Astrophysical Journal publication, the so-called Generic Objects of Dark Energy (GEODE) were created by the collapse of some of the first stars. Akrami’s team, however, suspects that the entire cosmos contains fields of energy.
Proof not possible under normal conditions
However, these fields and the clumps they cause cannot be detected under normal conditions. Yashar Akrami: “Despite qualitative differences in its physics, our model imitates the standard model so effectively that it is indistinguishable from it at the background level.”
If there are disruptions, clumping of the energy can lead to the next generation of measuring instruments and telescopes to provide evidence. Yashar Akrami: “This feature provides a good opportunity to test this and similar models of dark energy against the standard model of the cosmological constant.”