Australians prove existence of dark energy (first posited by Einstein)

[Humodour]

This is pretty significant. I mean, most physicists have come to accept that dark energy probably exists, but now an Aussie-led research team has proved it. Einstein originally considered that dark energy would need to exist or general relativity would be wrong. He tried to add it, but said it felt incorrect and ditched it, calling it a great blunder.

 

Turns out Einstein was right yet again. I have to admit, that guy was a true genius of modern times. Kind of humbling.

 

So this means

a) dark energy makes up about 75% of 'things' in the universe

b) Einsteinian relativity is reinforced (because it predicted/implied dark energy)

c) alternate theories which predict no dark energy (i.e. GR is wrong on certain scales) can be ruled out - this includes some variants of string theory... well they're not variants of string theory any more

 

Couple this with the recent confirmation by Gravity Probe B that Earth's spacetime experiences frame-dragging and the geodetic effect, which confirm relativity, and the past year has made relativity pretty impregnable. The implication is that if a theory disagrees with relativity, it's probably not relativity at fault.

 

Interestingly, though, a few confirmations of the predictions of quantum mechanics have also popped up. So quantum mechanics and general relativity are both core pillars of modern physics, are consistently reaffirmed by data from reality as time goes by, and yet they rather violently disagree with eachother.

 

Apparently that's where string theory and/or quantum field theory come in - to tie them together.

 

 

The article: http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-05-wiggle...y-einstein.html

NASA explains dark energy for those curious: http://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus...is-dark-energy/

Edited May 20, 2011 by Krezack

[Niten_Ryu]

I was hoping that there would be some other feature that would explain the results but I guess that's now over. Ultimate fate of our universe is probably so called Big Rip because of unlimited dark energy acceletation. Universe have about 22 billion more years to go but after that it start to break down in the ways that might be from Half-Life or something. 60 million years before the end galaxies cannot hold stars rotating supermassive blackholes in the middle. All stars start to distance 'em from all other starts, same way as galactical superstructures now.

 

Few months before the end solar systems can't hold planets in their orbits. In last few minutes gravity is no longer strong enough to hold stars and planets togather and they break down in molecular level. Just before the universe ends, atoms are annihilated as electromagnetic and strong nuclear force are defeated. This basically means that universe is back into singularity as there's no longer spacetime.

[Blarghagh]

So they crossed the streams?

[Pidesco]

*insert unfunny joke about dark energy being actually Vegemite. Hur hur Australians*

[Nepenthe]

I was hoping that there would be some other feature that would explain the results but I guess that's now over. Ultimate fate of our universe is probably so called Big Rip because of unlimited dark energy acceletation. Universe have about 22 billion more years to go but after that it start to break down in the ways that might be from Half-Life or something. 60 million years before the end galaxies cannot hold stars rotating supermassive blackholes in the middle. All stars start to distance 'em from all other starts, same way as galactical superstructures now.

 

Few months before the end solar systems can't hold planets in their orbits. In last few minutes gravity is no longer strong enough to hold stars and planets togather and they break down in molecular level. Just before the universe ends, atoms are annihilated as electromagnetic and strong nuclear force are defeated. This basically means that universe is back into singularity as there's no longer spacetime.

Well, I've had a few Saturday mornings that felt kind of like that.

[HoonDing]

Dark heroic energy.

 

The Reapers are coming.

 

etc.

[Tale]

But has anyone yet proven the existence of Australians?

[Monte Carlo]

I live in London, where there are gazillions of them. Usually whining about the weather. So, yes, they exist.

[Tale]

I live in London, where there are gazillions of them. Usually whining about the weather. So, yes, they exist.

Are you sure they're not just drunk englishmen? I mean, even more drunk?

[Monte Carlo]

No, they are wearing hats with corks-on-strings on the brim, and are often called Bruce.

[Guest The Architect]

But has anyone yet proven the existence of Australians?

 

I'LL BITE YOUR FACE ****!

[Nightshape]

I live in London, where there are gazillions of them. Usually whining about the weather. So, yes, they exist.

 

I've seen them too, I thought they'd been let out on parole, but they appear to be staying put...

[I want teh kotor 3]

So aussieland finally did something good for the world... 'Bout damn time...

 

Seriously though, mad props to the research team... And Krez, the thing with QFT is that it really only deals with special relativity, so it doesn't work with curvature and such... String theory does, but for the tme being it doesn't make a single goddamn experimental prediction, so it's not really a fully valid theory....

[Humodour]

Cheers, don't know much about QFT.

 

Also, I should probably stop calling it string theory since that's a bit of an antiquated term. All the important string theories were reconciled into a single theory called M-theory a while back. I believe they were all mathematically proven to be special cases of a larger theory (M-theory).

 

BTW, M-theory, as a theory of quantum gravity, is testable at (at least) high energies. Those energies are physically attainable by humans, they're just a while off yet (maybe in 20, 50 years time we'll build an atom smasher good enough).

 

So I'd prefer M-theory didn't get confused with those far more metaphysical theories which currently are, for all intents and purposes, untestable.

 

Also, it is worth pointing out that M-theory contains both GR and QM. If we ever falsify QM, that automatically also falsifies M-theory. GR is a limit of M-theory (a low energy limit I believe).

[Humodour]

So aussieland finally did something good for the world... 'Bout damn time...

 

The artificial heart (pacemaker), penicillin, the bionic ear, WiFi, the black box flight recorder, the electric drill, vegemite, and my favourite... atomic absorption spectroscopy. What do all these things have in common?

[Walsingham]

What do all these things have in common?

 

Ranch dressing?

Edited May 24, 2011 by Walsingham

[Humodour]

What do all these things have in common?

 

Ranch dressing?

 

I was going for the fact that they're all important things to have with you on a desert island.

[Oblarg]

Actually, it doesn't mean Einstein was "right," per se. Einstein's "cosmological constant" existed to allow a stationary universe - it turns out the universe is not stationary, thus his abandonment of it.

 

It later turned out, when physicists discovered cosmic acceleration, that the cosmological constant could conveniently be used to represent dark energy. It was not Einstein's original intent, and is somewhat coincidental.

Edited May 25, 2011 by Oblarg