New Research Suggests Holographic Dark Energy Could Halt The Expansion Of The Universe And Cause A Long Freeze, In Which All Stars Wink Out And Die
The universe may meet its end due to a hypothetical form of dark energy that will cause everything to freeze. In this scenario, the universe would expand to its limits, but everything would become so cold that all activity would eventually stop, leading to a frozen state.
Dark energy is responsible for speeding up the expansion of the universe. Its existence was discovered in the 1990s, but it has remained the most mysterious part of the cosmos even after more than two decades of research.
Over the years, scientists have come up with some ideas of what dark energy is and how it works. One theory involves holographic dark energy.
The concept of it is that gravity and space are merely an illusion. The universe is actually two-dimensional, and quantum forces make it seem three-dimensional. A consequence of this theory is that dark energy is naturally accelerating the expansion of the universe.
Many researchers have studied models of holographic dark energy to figure out ways to test it, but a pair of astrophysicists specifically wanted to look into what the fate of the universe would be if it really was ruled by holographic dark energy.
Dark energy makes up about 70 percent of the energy density in the entire universe. The density of both dark and regular matter drops as the universe expands. Meanwhile, dark energy becomes increasingly prevalent.
To determine the long-term fate of the universe, the researchers ignored matter and focused all their attention on the evolution of holographic dark energy.
They found that holographic dark energy would continue to expand the universe, which was expected. But over time, its influence will decline, and acceleration will eventually slow down.
The universe’s expansion will gradually decrease until it reaches what will be its final size, as it won’t be able to grow any larger. However, as the universe’s expansion slows down, the density of holographic dark energy decreases with it.
mozZz – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only
In the end, the universe will cease all movement. The researchers call this scenario “the long freeze.” If it happens, there won’t be any new energy sources for all the matter still inside the universe.
As a result, all the stars will wink out and die. Additionally, all the subatomic particles will drift away from each other in the cold.
Other commonly known possible fates for the universe’s demise include the “Big Freeze,” where the universe will continue expanding with nothing to stop it, pushing galaxies farther and farther away. The universe will slowly cool until it can no longer sustain life.
Another fate is the “Big Crunch,” where something will cause the universe’s expansion to reverse and collapse back into itself, turning the universe into the biggest black hole ever.
The results of the study were published in the pre-print database arXiv.
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