Is dark energy really responsible for the expansion of the universe?

[wolram]

arXiv:0807.1635 [ps, pdf, other]
Title: Dark energy: myths and reality
Authors: V.N. Lukash (Astro Space Centre of P.N. Lebedev Physical Institute, Moscow, Russia), V.A. Rubakov (Institute for Nuclear Research, Moscow, Russia)
Comments: 17 pages, 2 figures
Journal-ref: Physics-Uspekhi 51 (3), pp. 283-289 (2008)
Subjects: Astrophysics (astro-ph)

We discuss the questions related to dark energy in the Universe. We note that in spite of the effect of dark energy, large-scale structure is still being generated in the Universe and this will continue for about ten billion years. We also comment on some statements in the paper ``Dark energy and universal antigravitation'' by A.D. Chernin [4]

 

[jonmtkisco]

Hi wolram,

Nice paper from Lukash & Rubikov, thanks for bringing it to our attention. It sure throws cold water on Chernin's conclusions. Unusually strong critisism.

If I understand the gist of the paper, it is saying that large scale structure formation can continue for another 10 Gy or so into the future, despite the retarding influence of dark energy.

So for example, even if most superclusters are currently expanding, their expansion rate may have already slowed sufficiently that it is possible they will experience true gravitational collapse some Gy in the future, when their expansion rate actually turns negative. So in that sense a supercluster might be considered "gravitationally bound" at present even though most of its galaxies currently are moving farther apart. An interesting point to keep in mind when interpreting Integrated Sachs-Wolfe observations.

Although Lukash & Rubikov want to keep the door open for quintessence and higher-dimension theories of dark energy, that section seems like a fairly cursory tangent away from their main point.

Jon