Dark energy as an emergent phenomenon

Abstract

The cosmological constant, which was introduced by Einstein a century ago to allow for a static universe, experienced a revival two decades ago under the label dark energy as a parameter to model the observed accelerated expansion of the universe. Its physical nature has however remained enigmatic. Here we use the Einstein equations without cosmological constant to show that the origin of the accelerated expansion is not in the equations but has to do with the boundary conditions related to the causal horizon, which exists because the age of the universe is finite. Via transformations to conformal coordinates and Euclidian spacetime we find a resonance condition that uniquely determines the dimensionless parameter $\Omega_\Lambda$ that governs the observed cosmic acceleration: $\Omega_\Lambda =\textstyle{2\over 3}\,(\pi\, t_H/t_c)^2$, where $t_H$ is the Hubble time and $t_c$ is the conformal age of the universe. This explanation leads to a somewhat modified cosmology, in which the expansion rate of the early universe is 2.1 times faster than in the standard model. We show that Big Bang nucleosynthesis calculations with the faster expansion rate requires the mean baryon density to be raised to the level of the total matter density to agree with the observed deuterium abundance. This appears to eliminate the need to invoke the existence of some yet to be discovered exotic particles to explain dark matter, since all of it may be baryonic while still remaining consistent with the observed abundances of the light elements.