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An international team of scientists suggests that the accelerated expansion of the Universe could be caused by a mysterious substance called “quintessence” that permeates the cosmos.
The tentative hypothesis could offer tantalizing new clues to the nature of dark energy, the mysterious force physicists believe is responsible for the increasing speed at which the universe is developing.
But the researchers’ findings – and their far-reaching implications – left some of their peers to question the idea, because Nature reports.
The theory that dark energy is responsible for accelerating the expansion of the universe was first proposed in 1998, when researchers discovered that the amount of mysterious force was fixed per unit volume d space as a “cosmological constant”.
However, not all scientists fully subscribe to the theory, as Nature points out, arguing instead that dark energy is made up of a “fifth element,” or what researchers at the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK) in Japan and the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Germany now call quintessence. As they define it, quintessence is neither an inherent property of space determined by a constant nor a form of matter. If dark energy was indeed such a quintessential it would mean that its density would drop over time as the galaxy expands.
To test the theory, the researchers first hypothesized that quintessence should affect light in certain ways as it spreads through the cosmos.
In 1998, according to Nature, a team of scientists led by Sean Carroll, a theoretical physicist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, suggested that it would be technically possible to find evidence for what is going on.
They suggested that by looking at maps of the microwave cosmic background (CMB) – the relict electromagnetic radiation left behind by the early stages of the universe – scientists could theoretically be looking for certain light signatures to prove the theory of quintessence.
These light signatures would show electric fields of polarized light “rippling” in specific directions, they suggested, rather than in any direction.
And that’s exactly what two cosmologists from KEK and the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Germany claim to have done, as detailed in an article published in the journal. Physical examination letters this week.
By examining CMB data from the European Space Agency’s Planck mission, they were able to identify signs of quintessence using a whole new technique.
But the discovery is still far from being set in stone – physicists warn that the evidence is not yet complete because Nature reports.
If confirmed by further research, however, the theory could have dramatic consequences for our understanding of the universe. If dark energy was indeed the epitome, the expansion might actually slow down and eventually disappear altogether.
The process could even be reversed, causing the universe to shrink like a can of soda, according to Carroll, who was not involved in the study.
“We’re back to a situation where we have no idea how the Universe is going to end,” Carroll said. Nature.
READ MORE: Twisted light clues offer clues to the nature of dark energy [Nature]
Learn more about the expansion of the universe: To measure the expansion of the universe, we may need new physics
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