Saw some reporting on a paper that claims fluctuations in the mass field account for dark energy and dark matter and cosmic expansion. Would tie a neat bow on that whole thing if true, and resolve the cosmological catastrophe (the measured and predicted energy level of space differs by 120 orders of magnitude)
Different thing. The false vacuum hypothesis says that there's a base level of vacuum energy, but getting there costs energy to surmount some barrier, which means the universe is sitting somewhere above "true" vacuum energy. If true vacuum energy is achieved anywhere, then it will propagate out at the speed of light and drop everything at its interface into the new vacuum while using the released energy to continue propagating. Basically an unstoppable firewall moving at the speed of light, irreversibly replacing the universe behind it with an unrecognizable new one.
The vacuum catastrophe is a difference between what theory predicts the vacuum energy level should be and what we measure it to be. Theory says it should be so dummy high that the universe is unable to expand, and we observe its expansion accelerating, so the energy must be basically zero.
Saw some reporting on a paper that claims fluctuations in the mass field account for dark energy and dark matter and cosmic expansion. Would tie a neat bow on that whole thing if true, and resolve the cosmological catastrophe (the measured and predicted energy level of space differs by 120 orders of magnitude)
I was almost certain that you meant a factor of 120 because being off by 10^120 doesn't make any sense. Then I looked it up. Holy shit.
Yeah, reality straight up doesn't make sense in ways that have unfathomable implications.
is this the same thing or related to the false vacuum hypothesis?
Different thing. The false vacuum hypothesis says that there's a base level of vacuum energy, but getting there costs energy to surmount some barrier, which means the universe is sitting somewhere above "true" vacuum energy. If true vacuum energy is achieved anywhere, then it will propagate out at the speed of light and drop everything at its interface into the new vacuum while using the released energy to continue propagating. Basically an unstoppable firewall moving at the speed of light, irreversibly replacing the universe behind it with an unrecognizable new one.
The vacuum catastrophe is a difference between what theory predicts the vacuum energy level should be and what we measure it to be. Theory says it should be so dummy high that the universe is unable to expand, and we observe its expansion accelerating, so the energy must be basically zero.
Isn't this what bill Unruh and his student wrote up several years ago though?