Fortunate
2006-Feb-08, 01:23 AM
http://www.physicsweb.org/articles/news/10/2/4/1
Olga Mena and José Santiago at Fermilab and Jochen Weller of University College London have now calculated that the acceleration of the universe can be explained without the need for dark energy. What they have done is to modify the laws of gravity in such a way that they look relatively unchanged at short distances but get modified only at distances on the order of the current size of the observable universe -- the only place where the effects of the acceleration are apparent. At these distances the curvature of space is so small that the universe appears flat.
The proliferation of theories is way ahead of the slow, arduous task of providing clear observational constraints.
Olga Mena and José Santiago at Fermilab and Jochen Weller of University College London have now calculated that the acceleration of the universe can be explained without the need for dark energy. What they have done is to modify the laws of gravity in such a way that they look relatively unchanged at short distances but get modified only at distances on the order of the current size of the observable universe -- the only place where the effects of the acceleration are apparent. At these distances the curvature of space is so small that the universe appears flat.
The proliferation of theories is way ahead of the slow, arduous task of providing clear observational constraints.