Starship Asterisk*

'Big Wave' Theory Offers Alternative to Dark Energy
Space.com - 17 August 2009

Mathematicians have proposed an alternative explanation for the accelerating expansion of the universe that does not rely on the mystifying idea of dark energy.

According to the new proposition, the universe is not accelerating, as observations suggest. Instead, an expanding wave flowing through space-time has caused distant galaxies to appear to be accelerating away from us. This big wave, initiated after the Big Bang that is thought to have sparked the universe, could explain why objects today appear to be farther away from us than they should be according to the Standard Model of cosmology.

"We're saying that maybe the resulting expanding wave is actually causing the anomalous acceleration," said Blake Temple of the University of California, Davis. "We're saying that dark energy may not really be the correct explanation."

shouldnt we merege this to http://asterisk.apod.com/vie ... =8&t=17185

I'm not sure that the Big Wave is a gravitational wave (although I'm not sure what it could be). Gravity is not mentioned in the article with respect to this expansion wave. Basically they are saying the expansion wave gives the appearance of accelerating expansion. They admit that its just a mathematical model that fits GR and could explain apparent acceleration. They also admit that they have yet to determine whether or not the model fits with other experimental observations (nucleosynthesis, CMB, etc.)

bystander wrote:

Mathematicians have proposed an alternative explanation for the accelerating expansion of the universe that does not rely on the mystifying idea of dark energy.

It's always dangerous when mathematicians start thinking they are physicists... <g>

Hello makc,

Thanks for bringing back to light the thread I started, it was getting pretty far back in the pack there. I remember a poster, whom I'm sure most of you will recall, whose handle was JimJast. He at that time postulated that expansion (or rather the illusion of it according to his way of thinking) was apparent to us because of the curvature of space and that the actual distances were much less and that the appearance of accelerated expansion was the result of that curvature. Now since the curvature of spacetime is assumed to be caused by Gravity- oops........Gravity is assumed to be caused by curvature.............well.........whichever way it's sopposed to be I merely took the idea to what I thought would be the next logical avenue. It probably has nothing to do with bystander's post which I thought was very interesting indeed.

Thanks again makc.

astrolabe wrote:... I merely took the idea to what I thought would be the next logical avenue. It probably has nothing to do with bystander's post which I thought was very interesting indeed.

Yes, I took your gravity waves to be more in keeping with what the researchers at LIGO are studying.
http://asterisk.apod.com/vie ... =8&t=17274