New and testable (on Earth) hypothesis of Dark Energy

[harlequin]

Two biggest physics breakthroughs of the last decade are integrally linked through dark energy and "acceleron" (http://www.physorg.com/news527.html)

Any thoughts on this idea?

[George]

The researchers say a neutrino's mass can actually change according to the environment through which it is passing, in the same way the appearance of light changes depending on whether it's traveling through air, water or a prism. That means that neutrino detectors can come up with somewhat different findings depending on where they are and what surrounds them.
Neutrinos do seem to have mass and they are believed to change so something is happening. I felt I should comment as my knowledge and understanding on neutrinos is, likely, mesurable in neutrino units. :)

[harlequin]

The researchers say a neutrino's mass can actually change according to the environment through which it is passing, in the same way the appearance of light changes depending on whether it's traveling through air, water or a prism. That means that neutrino detectors can come up with somewhat different findings depending on where they are and what surrounds them.
Neutrinos do seem to have mass and they are believed to change so something is happening. I felt I should comment as my knowledge and understanding on neutrinos is, likely, mesurable in neutrino units. :)

That neutrinos can change type does not require this new hypothesis. That they have mass does the job or so the particle physicists claim.

But that the change depends on what it passes through would be the novel aspect of this hypothesis if I understand this correctly.

[Tobin Dax]

The researchers say a neutrino's mass can actually change according to the environment through which it is passing, in the same way the appearance of light changes depending on whether it's traveling through air, water or a prism. That means that neutrino detectors can come up with somewhat different findings depending on where they are and what surrounds them.
Neutrinos do seem to have mass and they are believed to change so something is happening. I felt I should comment as my knowledge and understanding on neutrinos is, likely, mesurable in neutrino units. :)

That neutrinos can change type does not require this new hypothesis. That they have mass does the job or so the particle physicists claim.

But that the change depends on what it passes through would be the novel aspect of this hypothesis if I understand this correctly.

Not too novel. I was taught in a class this past year the density of matter a neutrino passes through can affect how it changes flavor. If this was in that class, it has to be relatively old and well known.

[ngc3314]

Not too novel. I was taught in a class this past year the density of matter a neutrino passes through can affect how it changes flavor. If this was in that class, it has to be relatively old and well known.

Hmm - that class was pretty up-to-date. The folks in our neutrino group downstairs (of course it's downstairs - shields them from cosmic-ray muons, by the same logic that usually puts astronomers on the top floor) have only been talking about experimental evidence for matter-induced oscillations for 2 or 3 years now. In the new e-world where we need not wait for the printed journal, even things in classes get updated in a timely way. Just look how quickly the WMAP cosmological parameters propagated through lectures, appers, books, stone tablets...

[Doodler]

Its an interesting concept they allude to concerning the expansion of the universe being decellerated again by increased neutrino mass.

Neutrinos being something like a safety brake to prevent a Great Rip conclusion to the universe. A closed system acheiving a new equilibrium, perhaps?