Research by University of Arizona astronomy professor Rodger
Thompson finds that a popular alternative to Albert Einstein’s theory for the
acceleration of the expansion of the universe does not fit newly obtained data
on a fundamental constant, the proton to electron mass ratio.
Thompson's findings, reported Jan. 9 at the American
Astronomical Society meeting in Long Beach, Calif., impact our understanding of
the universe and point to a new direction for the further study of its
accelerating expansion.
To explain the acceleration of the expansion of the
universe, astrophysicists have invoked dark energy – a hypothetical form of
energy that permeates all of space. A popular theory of dark energy, however,
does not fit new results on the value of the proton mass divided by the
electron mass in the early universe.