Jorrie
Science Advisor
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Thanks, I now understand this for pure de Sitter. For the argument, I have originally used identical spherical masses spread uniformly throughout, making it equivalent to our present ##\Lambda## dominated LCDM universe. The center of any chosen mass becomes a local potential "valley" and the centers of the "voids" surrounding it, local "hills". Choosing any void as origin, it will be the "top of a potential energy hill", because everything is receding from it.PeterDonis said:The chosen comoving worldline becomes the "top" of a potential energy "hill".
I think this will be the same for any expanding space, ##\Lambda = 0## or not. The question that is still a little puzzling: in the case of a dominant ##\Lambda##, can energy for local use in principle be extracted by a suitable converter? I.e. can I warm my food without using any fuel carried along? And if so, does the energy come from "the vacuum" or from the intrinsic global curvature? Ok, I know these are not well defined concepts, but I think the question is suitably general...
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