Dark Energy

Aruna Kesavan

Published 2009-08-20, updated 2009-08-25Version 2

Dark energy is one of the mysteries of modern science. It is unlike any known form of matter or energy and has been detected so far only by its gravitational effect of repulsion. Owing to its effects being discernible only at very very large distance scales, dark energy was only detected at the turn of the last century when technology had advanced enough to observe a greater part of the universe in finer detail. The aim of the report is to gain a better understanding of the mysterious dark energy. To this end, both theoretical methods and observational evidence are studied. Three lines of evidence, namely, the redshift data of type Ia supernovae, estimates of the age of the universe by various methods, and the anisotropies in the cosmic background radiation, build the case for existence of dark energy. The supernova data indicate that the expansion of the universe is accelerating. The ages of the oldest star clusters in the universe indicate that the universe is older than previously thought to be. The anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background radiation suggest that the universe is globally spatially flat. If one agrees that the dynamics of the geometry of the universe is dictated by its energy-momentum content through Einstein's general theory of relativity, then all these independent observations lead to the amazing conclusion that the amount of energy in the universe that is presently accounted for by matter and radiation is not enough to explain these phenomena. One of the best and simplest explanations for dark energy is the cosmological constant. While it does not answer all questions, it certainly does manage to explain the observations. The following report examines in some detail the dark energy problem and the candidacy of the cosmological constant as the right theory of dark energy.