i found myself asking "What is Dark Energy & is String Theory relevant to its understanding".

RainbowSingularity

RainbowSingularity

Valued Senior Member
i have been away for some time running in materialistic paradigms, running on the hamster wheel of life.
The question seems to have reignited my fascination.
Dark Energy seems to be a key "next stage" Question... and i have a feeling String Theory may open the door to it.

My understanding of physics is fairly poor, however i am attempting to re ignite my intellectual mind.

i postulate for an example that maybe string theory will define tunneling through Dark Energy.
My mind is currently very conflicted and i have lost a little of what i wanted to focus on & extrapolate.

Google AI

what is currently known about dark energy ?

Dark energy is a mysterious force that is thought to be driving the accelerated expansion of the universe. While its nature remains unknown, it is believed to make up roughly 68-70% of the universe's total energy density. Dark energy is thought to be smoothly distributed throughout the universe and its effect is to push galaxies apart, working against gravity.

In summary: Dark energy is a crucial part of the universe, driving its accelerated expansion, but its true nature remains one of the biggest unsolved mysteries in physics and cosmology
Click to expand...

what are your thoughts on Dark Energy ?(additionally do you think String Theory has the potential to explain Dark Energy)
(it did cross my mind if photon tunneling had anything to do with String Theory)

The journey of a Thousand miles starts with one step...
i apologize in advance for my poorly constructed question, i have not been using my upper mind for some time.
 
Nobody knows what it is, if it exists. We observe the effect (accelerating expansion) but have no idea what may be responsible.

If string theory proves relevant to its understanding, that will be the first example of anything useful it has achieved. Until now, string theory has been a cottage industry in mathematical speculation, incapable of making any observational predictions. Arguably therefore, it is not even science but a sort of mathematical metaphysics that has nonetheless become self-sustaining in academia. It reminds of Hermann Hesse's "Glass Bead Game": a tremendously intellectual and rarified pursuit, but wholly abstract and without utility.

Here endeth the rant:).

Tunnelling is something else: a well-established quantum mechanical phenomenon by which QM entities can penetrate (with low probability) sufficiently narrow potential energy barriers that a classical particle would have insufficient energy to get through. An example from chemistry is the inversion spectrum of ammonia, by which this umbrella-shaped molecule can turn itself inside out and back, even when the temperature is too low for that to happen according to classical theory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramidal_inversion

I cannot see how that can play any kind of role in something like Dark Energy which is observed at very large scales, as QM tunnelling is intrinsically restricted to the atomic scale.
 
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exchemist said:
Nobody knows what it is, if it exists. We observe the effect (accelerating expansion) but have no idea what may be responsible.

If string theory proves relevant to its understanding, that will be the first example of anything useful it has achieved. Until now, string theory has been a cottage industry in mathematical speculation, incapable of making any observational predictions. Arguably therefore, it is not even science but a sort of mathematical metaphysics that has nonetheless become self-sustaining in academia. It reminds of Hermann Hesse's "Glass Bead Game": a tremendously intellectual and rarified pursuit, but wholly abstract and without utility.

Here endeth the rant:).

Tunnelling is something else: a well-established quantum mechanical phenomenon by which QM entities can penetrate (with low probability) sufficiently narrow potential energy barriers that a classical particle would have insufficient energy to get through. An example from chemistry is the inversion spectrum of ammonia, by which this umbrella-shaped molecule can turn itself inside out and back, even when the temperature is too low for that to happen according to classical theory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramidal_inversion

I cannot see how that can play any kind of role in something like Dark Energy which is observed at very large scales, as QM tunnelling is intrinsically restricted to the atomic scale.
Click to expand...
Thanks for your thoughts :)
 
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