microscopic worms may be driving the accelerated expansion of the universe, scientists say. These tiny worms are constantly being born from the vacuum of space due to subtle quantum effects.
If confirmed through experiments and observations, wormholes could become a valuable source of information on quantum gravity – a theoretical unification of the fundamental forces of the universe, often considered the Holy Grail of theoretical physics.
Numerous astronomical observations show that our universe is expanding at an ever-increasing rate. However, Einstein’s general theory of relativity states that if the universe contains only the species of particles and radiation that we know, such behavior of the structure of space is impossible.
To reconcile observations of the expanding universe with this theory, scientists have proposed that space is filled with an enigmatic entity that cannot be detected in experiments on Earth or in space.
This mysterious substance, called dark energyinteracts very weakly with other types of matter and fields, so there is currently no reliable information about its structure or origin.
In a recent study published April 5 in the journal Physical examination Dresearchers proposed a bold new candidate for dark energy: subatomic-sized wormholes—or tiny tunnels connecting different points in space.
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According to the authors, these worms are constantly being born and destroyed in the vacuum of space due to quantum effects. This is similar to how particles are produced near the event horizon black holesleading to Hawking radiation; or how electron-positron pairs are generated by a strong electric field—a phenomenon known as the Schwinger effect.
However, the creation of these worms is somewhat different from those other phenomena, because their mathematical description requires accounting for quantum effects in gravity—a task that is much more complicated and poorly understood.
These difficulties in accounting for quantum gravitational phenomena prevented the authors from accurately inferring the birth rate in the wormhole. However, using an approach known as Euclidean quantum gravity, they showed that if about 10 billion wormholes spontaneously formed per cubic centimeter per second, the energy they generated would be sufficient to explain the currently observed rate of expansion of the universe. .
“Although our result was obtained on the basis of Euclidean quantum gravity … it is likely that our modification can also be applied to other theories of quantum gravity,” the co-author of the study. Stylianos Tsilioukasa doctoral student at the University of Thessaly and the National Observatory of Athens, told Live Science via email.
Furthermore, the team’s analysis showed that their model of dark energy is even better observationally than the more widely accepted theory, known as Standard Cosmological Modelwhich posits that dark energy has a time-independent energy density.
“According to our proposal dark energy can change over time,” Tsilioukas said. “This is a huge advantage because recent observations suggest that the expansion rate of the universe is different in recent times than it was in the early universe.”
However, no matter how successful the researchers’ model is in explaining the general properties of dark energy, the validity of any physical theory must be tested with experimental data. And for now, the theory remains unprovable.
In the future, ever increasing accuracy of experiments in space and the observations should enable astronomers to infer in greater detail the rate of expansion of the universe, as well as measure other observable manifestations of dark energy. This could enable researchers to test whether this new proposed model of dark energy is correct.
Meanwhile, the authors plan to further improve their theoretical analysis. “We are now working on a model that calculates the rate of wormhole formation.” Tsilioukas said. “The research looks promising and we hope to publish the results very soon.”