Imagine space as not completely empty but buzzing with tiny, invisible energy particles popping in and out of existence.
This is one of the biggest puzzles in physics today: understanding this hidden energy and how it relates to the mysterious force pushing our universe to expand faster and faster, which scientists call dark energy.
Researchers in Italy, led by Enrico Calloni at the University of Naples Federico II, are on a quest to solve part of this puzzle. They’ve built a special scale, a very advanced one, which they hope can measure how this invisible energy interacts with gravity.
Their work, shared in The European Physical Journal Plus, could help us get closer to figuring out where dark energy comes from.
Here’s the thing: even in a vacuum, where you might think there’s nothing at all, there’s actually a lot going on. Energy waves, too small for us to see or feel, are constantly appearing and disappearing.
Calloni’s team wants to measure how these waves affect their surroundings by using a really sensitive scale.
This scale has a piece of a super cold material at one end and a counterweight at the other. They think that the energy from the vacuum might cause tiny changes in the weight of this material.
To spot these minuscule changes, they use a technique that involves splitting a light beam in two and measuring how far each part travels. If the material’s weight changes, even by a little bit, the distance the light beams travel will be slightly different.
They tested their scale in a lab in Sardinia, a place chosen for its very quiet surroundings which is important for such a delicate experiment.
Their early experiments are promising, suggesting that with some more work, their device could really detect the interaction between this hidden energy and gravity.
Understanding this interaction could be a key piece of the puzzle in solving the dark energy mystery.
This research is like building a bridge between what we know about the small, unseen parts of our universe and the vast expanses of space that are still beyond our grasp.
The research findings can be found in The European Physical Journal Plus.
Copyright © 2024 Knowridge Science Report. All rights reserved.
