Greetings.. I have a theory on Acceleration of Cosmic Expansion.

[Aelfyre]

Ok everyone hello.. I want to apologize in advance for the length of this post and put out the general disclaimer that I have no college behind me whatsoever and am nothing more than an avid fan of theoretical physics.. I read everything I can find on it and then they start throwing all those ginormous equations and what not in there and I get that deer caught in the headlights thing.. oh and Im not here tryin to sell a book or anything.. I just have a thought I’d like to share and see if anyone can at the very least understand whats going on in my head whether or not they think the idea has any merit.. that being said..

 

 

 

Theory of why the expansion of the universe is accelerating.

 

Ok picture a two dimensional slice of the universe as being the surface of a body of water smooth as glass. On this surface float blujillions of ping pong balls colored white and black.

White ping pong balls represent discrete quantum of empty space time vibrating strings whatever.. but for the purpose of this theory I am proposing that on a sufficiently small scale these discrete units of space-time exist.. maybe associated with that whole Planck length thing? I dunno.. anyway..

black ping pong balls represent baryonic matter (pretty sure baryonic just means normal matter.. from subatomic particles up to atoms and molecules and such forgive me if this is a mistaken assumption)

Now the white balls being massless exert no gravitational distortion on the surrounding balls and do nothing but occupy space while the black balls possessing mass do exert gravitational attraction on nearby matter causing it to tend to clump together in to atoms and molecules and bagels and new age hipsters all the way up to planets and suns.. which themselves tend to congregate in to solar systems and galaxies and galactic clusters and super-galactic clusters ad nauseum..

This over the passage of time causes areas of high density to form as well as areas of lower density as matter in the lower density areas is pulled into the high density.. hey look ma it’s a universe!

Now the simple momentum of the big bang would cause the expansion but obviously at some point this would eventually slow to a stop and then reverse itself. Observations however have proven otherwise however that the rate of expansion is in fact accelerating.

There has been speculation into the existence of an unobserved force out there labeled dark energy which is serving to push the universe apart at an exponentially increasing rate. I have another theory I just wanted to throw out there to be mulled around, beaten down, rode hard and put up wet, whatever.

 

Getting back to the surface of the water and the ping pong balls.. what if from a fourth physical dimension somewhere under the surface of the water.. more white ping pong balls were floating to the surface?

 

I was just thinking.. how relatively easy it is to visualize and observe a universe with fewer physical dimensions than ours but how its basically impossible to do the same for a universe with more physical dimensions, Basically because we lack the required mobility in that dimension to gain the needed perspective on our original three… the whole apple in flatland thing.. (I’m typing this up on my breaks at work btw so I apologize for my lack of references to things which I am sure you are all acutely aware of anyway) so the apple can see the square and interact with it but unless it chooses to intersect with the squares plane the square has no way of observing or interacting with the apple. So ok same concept with the surface of the water. There could be a 4th physical dimension which is the water itself from the surface downwards.. moving on…

 

Now as these new ping pong balls float to the surface they spread the similarly massless white balls aside and in effect space simply gets bigger.. nothing actually *moved* but more space has been created.. now the black balls with that whole pesky gravitational field tend to increase the surface tension of the water (I visualize this like looking at the whole gravity well on a rubber sheet thing, if there is that grid thing on the sheet and you look at it from straight downwards.. removing the perspective of the third dimension it just looks like the squares on the sheet contract in on themselves) so the white balls cannot penetrate to the surface so the only place this expansion can take place is way out in inter-galactic space where the effect of gravity is absolutely minimal and the surface tension is low enough to allow these new quantum of space-time to manifest in our dimension..

 

What I am thinking is that at first there would be no effect as there is lots of gravity everywhere and the surface tension is incredible but as the universe ages and momentum carried it farther and farther apart areas began to emerge where there was sufficiently low gravitational distortion to allow more space to be pulled through from this 4th dimension.

 

It’s kinda a dicey concept for me to wrap my headmeat around but technically there wouldn’t be any real force pushing on the universe, the galaxies would simply be getting farther and farther apart by default as more and more space manifests in our three dimensional reality between them. The space-time isn’t being created per se its always been there just inaccessible and unobservable from our perspective in a 4th physical dimension.

 

Now I’ll be the first to admit even I can see several large questions this would raise… why are we on the surface of the water.. why don’t these space-time quantum simply pass thru us on their way up and what the heck would be the source of all these extra-dimensional ping pong balls in the first place?

 

But as I said earlier I just wanted to put this before some educated minds and see if anyone had any thoughts on it… it’s times like this I really wish I’da gone to college.

 

Oh wait I almost forgot.. I was thinking maybe this theory would be vaguely testable if you could measure the acceleration of the universe on the verge of a known large void. (I forget the name but I was watching a history channel special on largest things in the universe and there is this ginourmous hole in the cosmic web which is basically the largest observed pocket of nearly empty space) oh but as I was saying measure it there.. and then measure it elsewhere and see if the acceleration is faster on the edges of that void as opposed to comparatively denser areas of the universe.

[steiner]

Whoa, that is really weird/interesting. Are you suggesting that space from another, higher dimension is somehow leaking through into our Universe, causing the expansion?

 

Since I dont have a good understanding of higher dimensions, I dont know if that is even plausible, but its a fascinating idea. (I assume I understood you right). It sort of reminds me of the theory that gravitons are leaking up into higher dimensions. Your theory would also explain the 'rich get richer' and the 'poor get poorer' scenario we have for galaxies. This is where galaxies get more and more unevenly distributed. This can be explained by normal theories, but by your theory it should mean that this effect would happen at an accelerated rate.

 

Anyway, Im trying to think of a serious fault with the theory, but Im not knowledgeable enough to give you one atm. Nice thinking!

[Aelfyre]

thank you.. oh and to the mods.. i didn't even notice the speculations forums or I surely would have posted this there in the first place.. apologies..

 

yeah I think something like this might be happening but unfortunatlet have no education or credentials with which to back up my thoughts so i'm just putting it out there.

[steiner]

^I wouldnt get your hopes up. There's bound to be a flaw in the theory. Its just that I failed to spot it.

 

The thing is, if it is scientifically plausible that space can enter from a higher dimension then it has about as much evidence for it as dark energy - nothing. Of course, this theory could also link to a multiverse type proposition.

[THE FIFTH KNIGH]

Hey!-- I lost the 'T' off of THE FIFTH KNIGHT, it must have happened as I transported from the 5th Dimension, onto this world chessboard (just kidding?)! Seriously though, there is more than enough evidence within theoretical mathematics, and eye-witness accounts of 'real' life phenomena, to point to the 'multiple dimensions' theories! It is speculated that the 'Standard & Cosmological' models, supported by theoretical mathematics, may one day become massively altered! The 5.8 billion dollar question is: will these models still be intact after the CERN LHC/ALICE/ATLAS experiments, through the coming decade of preplanned precision energy upgrades? How will these answers affect not only this post, but every article, post, and comment everywhere??? This may affect our perception of what we 'think' we see, through our telescopes at night!

 

http://thefifthknight.blogspot.com/

 

Remember: Follow the 'White Rabbit'!

[Klaynos]

First comment...

 

The maths/equations IS theoretical physics... The words are just fluff

 

baryonic matter == matter that is made of baryons...

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baryon

 

So protons etc...

 

Your idea (it's not a theory), would be an explination for dark energy, not a replacement... dark energy is just a holding name for something...

 

My knowledge of GR isn't great enough to say whether there's any sense in a surface tension idea for the space-time surface... ajb help!?

 

I'm not even sure if there would be a good way to mathematically formulate this, unless you could tie in with some other higher dimension theory... and without maths, you can't test it

[Aelfyre]

^I wouldnt get your hopes up. There's bound to be a flaw in the theory. Its just that I failed to spot it.

 

The thing is, if it is scientifically plausible that space can enter from a higher dimension then it has about as much evidence for it as dark energy - nothing. Of course, this theory could also link to a multiverse type proposition.

 

I dont have any hopes to get up.. I'm not looking for accolades, I was just throwing the idea (not a theory) out there and seeing what anyone thought of its merits or flaws.. I guess i was hoping to pique the curiosity of someone who did have the maths..