- #1
johne1618
- 371
- 0
I was wondering if dark energy might actually be gravitational potential energy.
If one assumes that space is flat and that the Universe is approximately a sphere with mass M and the Hubble radius R then we find that we have the approximate relation:
[itex] \frac{G M }{R} = c^2 [/itex]
A mass m at the center of the sphere would have approximate gravitational potential energy
[itex] PE = - \frac{G M m}{R} = - m c^2 [/itex]
This potential energy would have a gravitational repulsion that might counteract the gravitational attraction due to mass m causing the Universal expansion to accelerate.
I would be interested to hear what you think of this line of thought.
If one assumes that space is flat and that the Universe is approximately a sphere with mass M and the Hubble radius R then we find that we have the approximate relation:
[itex] \frac{G M }{R} = c^2 [/itex]
A mass m at the center of the sphere would have approximate gravitational potential energy
[itex] PE = - \frac{G M m}{R} = - m c^2 [/itex]
This potential energy would have a gravitational repulsion that might counteract the gravitational attraction due to mass m causing the Universal expansion to accelerate.
I would be interested to hear what you think of this line of thought.