B Is Dark Energy a Continuous Creation Theory?

[New Simplicio]

Moderator's note: Spun off from another thread due to topic change.

Isn't Dark Energy a continuous creation theory?

 

[PeterDonis]

Isn't Dark Energy a continuous creation theory?

No.

 

[New Simplicio]

As the universe expands, won't Dark Energy get diluted and grow weaker? Will it grow weaker at greater distance away?

 

[phinds]

As the universe expands, won't Dark Energy get diluted ...

No, dark energy has a constant density under expansion.

 

[PeterDonis]

As the universe expands, won't Dark Energy get diluted and grow weaker?

No.

Will it grow weaker at greater distance away?

This question doesn't make sense; a density has nothing to do with a distance. The density of dark energy is constant.

 

[New Simplicio]

Constant density with increasing volume means adding material. What does density mean?

 

[phinds]

Constant density with increasing volume means adding material. What does density mean?

There is NO material to "add", it's just everything (non-bound systems) moving apart from every thing else in space-time but with the amount of dark energy (whatever it IS) unchanged per unit volume.

This can be difficult to get your head around at first but nature doesn't care about our faulty "intuition / common sense".

 

[PeterDonis]

Constant density with increasing volume means adding material.

Dark energy is not "material" in the sense you are using the term here.

 

[New Simplicio]

Is that like the metric expansion of spacetime? Is it true that one can't say that spacetime is expanding, being created, or stretching?

 

[timmdeeg]

Constant density with increasing volume means adding material. What does density mean?

In a sense yes, but it isn't a material as already stated, it is vacuum energy. As John A. Peacock says in "Cosmological Physics" "the vacuum acts as a reservoir of unlimited energy". So increasing volume means an increasing amount of vacuum energy whereby its density (energy per unit volume) remains constant.

 

[PeterDonis]

Is that like the metric expansion of spacetime?

Is what like the metric expansion of spacetime?

Is it true that one can't say that spacetime is expanding, being created, or stretching?

Yes. Spacetime is a 4-dimensional geometry. It doesn't change. It just is.

 

[New Simplicio]

Is Dark Energy density constant in the Block Universe?

 

[PeterDonis]

Is Dark Energy density constant in the Block Universe?

What do you mean by the Block Universe?

 

[New Simplicio]

The last question is retracted as unconventional. No, it's not worth repeating.

 

[PeterDonis]

The last question is retracted as unconventional.

Fair enough. Thread closed.