Concept : Dark matter, Dark energy, Accelerating universe and many more

Background Theory

Before the discovery of ACCELERATING EXPANSION of the UNIVERSE in 1998, everyone

believes that –

1) Since big bang, our universe is continue expanding

2) Rate of expansion of universe is decreases with time, and
3) This expansion will stop in future, probable after few billions year later

and after this point it either may remain the same shape and size as believe by
.....theorist or may start shrinking and finally collapse as believes by “BIG crunch” theorist.

But this discovery (ACCELERATING EXPANSION of UNIVERSE) shakes the entire

foundation of all previous believes and arose a new waves in space observation science with
questions from where our universe get all this necessary energy required for acceleration of
galaxy expansion – so called – DARK ENERGY.

Concept | ACCELERATING EXPANSION of UNIVERSE

In 1998, two groups of astronomers announced that the expansion of the universe is
actually accelerating – means - it’s expanding at a much faster rate than originally believed and its
rate of expansion further increasing with time pass. This discovery earned Nobel Prize in 2011.

 Observations of the most distant TYPE Ia SUPERNOVAE showed that they appear
dimmer than expected from the Hubble law ( V = H0r) and its RED SHIFT show faster
than expected. This implies that they are farther away than expected and that therefore
the expansion of the universe is accelerating.
 Then question arises what is overpowering gravity and causing the outward acceleration
of the universe ? Astronomers believe the answer may be that the expansion is powered
by VACUUM ENERGY, energy that is hidden in the emptiness of space that fills the
universe.
 This VACUUM energy is known as DARK ENERGY.
 This view further supported by Quantum physics as it requires "empty space" to be filled
with particles and anti-particles being continually created and annihilated. This could
involve a net vacuum energy, which, if present, would behave like a repulsive force at
large enough distances

Concept | what is DARK ENERGY ?

Concept of DARK ENERGY however plicate our view to understand acceleratory

expansion of the universe, but the issue is still remain – what is this DARK ENERGY ?

 Dark energy is a hypothetical form of energy that permeates all of space and tends to
accelerate the expansion of the universe. It makes almost 73 % of our universe.

PROPERTIES OF DARK ENERGY :

 Makes up approximately 68 % of the universe (according to CERN) and appears to be

associated with the vacuum in space.
 Dark energy
 It is distributed evenly throughout the universe, means dark energy does not have any
local gravitational effects, but show itself only on the large cosmic scale
 This leads to a repulsive force, which tends to accelerate the expansion of the universe.

 Dark matter : attracts - pulls matter inward v/s Dark energy : repels - push matter
outward

EVIDENCE OF EXISTENCE OF DARK ENERGY :

 Observations of Type Ia supernovae and its RED Shift suggested that the expansion of
the universe is accelerating.
 Cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation : Measurements of CMB anisotropies
indicate that the universe is close to flat. The mass/energy density of the universe must
be equal to the critical density. The total amount of matter in the universe (including
baryons and dark matter), as measured from the CMB spectrum, accounts for only
about 30% of the critical density. This implies the existence of an additional form of
energy to account for the remaining 70%
 Large-scale structure : The theory of large-scale structure, which governs the formation
of structures in the universe (stars, quasars, galaxies and galaxy groups and clusters),
also suggests that the density of matter in the universe is only 30% of the critical
density.
 Late-time integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect : Accelerated cosmic expansion causes
gravitational potential wells and hills to flatten as photons pass through them,
producing cold spots and hot spots on the CMB aligned with vast supervoids and
 superclusters. This so-called late-time Integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect (ISW) is a direct
signal of dark energy in a flat universe.

Now, these two discoveries gives further boost up in Space observation science by creating
problems of missing baryonic matter – so called DARK MATTER.

Concept | what is DARK MATTER ?

To easy understand the concept and properties of dark matter we needs to

understand its way of discovery before we discussing it.

Astronomers to trying to hunt missing matter (DARK matter) and Dark energy
reported few new observations.

1) The Milky Way is shaped like a disk. The laws of gravity (Kepler's laws or rotation) say
that the stars that are closest to the centre of the galaxy — which is also its center of
mass — should move faster than those out on the galaxy’s edge. Yet when
astronomers measured stars all across the galaxy, they found that they all orbit the
center of the galaxy at about the same speed. This suggests that something outside the
galaxy’s disk is tugging at the stars : dark matter

2) The gravity force reported much higher between the galaxy than there visible mass of
its stars and gas clouds combine that means something is there that we didn’t see in
known light spectrum.
3) Galaxy move relatively faster around there centre then there expectation
4) Often galaxies, free gaseous nebulas shows much higher GRAVITATIONAL LANSING
capacity then its actual visible mass.
On the basis of all these observation, Astronomers confirm that there is missing matter (or
DARK matter) that is behind all these phenomenon’s. So

DEFINITION :

DARK matter is the non-baryonic matter that makes almost about 27% of the
universe. It does not interact with the electromagnetic spectrum so hard to spot thts why we
called it DARK matter.

PROPERTIES :

 Dark matter do not interact with the electromagnetic force. This means it does not
absorb, reflect or emit light, making it extremely hard to spot. However we observed it
indirectly by gravitational effect it seems to have on visible matter.
 Dark matter seems to outweigh visible matter roughly six to one, making up about 27%
of the universe.
 It is not in the form of dark clouds of normal matter, matter made up of particles called
baryons. We know this because we would be able to detect baryonic clouds by their
absorption of radiation passing through them.
 Dark matter is not antimatter, because we do not see the unique gamma rays that are
produced when antimatter annihilates with matter.
 Dark matter : attracts - pulls matter inward
Dark energy : repels - push matter outward
 TYPE Ia SUPERNOVAE

Type Ia supernovae a binary star system in which two stars orbiting one
another with their common center of mass.

Importance : Use as cosmological yard stick (standard candle) to measure distance of

far distance objects like start, easy identification of galaxies and helping to Studies of
stellar evolution.
 NOTE : Some Astronomical units

 Astronomical unit (AU) : Distance b/w sun and earth = 1 AU

Used inside the solar system
 Light year (LY) : means distance that light travel in a year
 Parsec (Pc) : A parsec is the distance at which one astronomical unit subtends
an angle of one arc second which corresponds to astronomical units.

₋ So, 1 parsec = 3.26 light-years

₋ It used to measure large distances outside the Solar System.

Remaining concept : Red Shift, CMBR, gravitational lensing, saraswati super cluster,
Gravitational waves etc.

EXERCISE

UPSC 2012 : Which of the following concepts can be used to study the rate of acceleration of
the Universe?
1. Supernovae Explosions
2. Dark Matter
3. Dark Energy
4. Black Holes.

A. 1 & 3 only.
B. 1 & 2 only.
C. 2, 3 & 4 only.
D. 1, 3 & 4 only