Sunday, May 22, 2011

The Dark Emperor's New Clothes?

Aloha from Waikiki!

Another study has been released, of galaxy clustering, that claims to be consistent with an LCDM cosmology. In the press it is trumpeted as "confirming" the existence of a repulsive "dark energy." Like the Emperor's New Clothes, DE needs repeated confirmations by it's believers that it exists. What are they insecure about? More about this coming soon.

UPDATE from COSMOS magazine May 24:

"This is a remarkable survey, and a convincing fit to the standard hypothesis of a homogeneous cosmology that includes Einstein's cosmological constant," said Thomas Buchert, a professor of cosmology at Claude Bernard University, France.

"However, it does not rule out alternatives to the standard model, and it does not prove that dark energy 'exists'."

This view is also taken by David Wiltshire, a theoretical cosmologist from the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. "If one makes the assumption that the universe expands as a uniform fluid, then these measurements are independent evidence for dark energy," he said.

"However, I see no reason for making the standard assumptions." Wiltshire himself prefers an alternative model of the universe that has no need for dark energy.

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3 Comments:

Blogger Kea said...

Thank goodness you mentioned this. That BBC headline was so, so irritating.

4:38 PM  
Blogger L. Riofrio said...

Aloha Kea! Your posts show infinitely more sense than the BBC. If it had been around, the Beeb would have run many articles on epicycles and ether. Despite all the silliness in the press, the response to these posts show that the sheep can't keep good ideas down. Your supporting words are always appreciated.

6:43 AM  
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