It is possible that the total energy of the universe is zero. That's because in addition to mass energy and energy of motion, there is an enormous gravitational binding energy. So the actual energy of the universe is zero, and there is no problem with the conservation of energy; it is zero, and it always has been.
Zero? Yes, it is possible. Potential energy is difficult to notice unless you try to move to a very different location.
I say "possible" because if you do a classical calculation for the total energy, and assume that the mass density is at the "critical" value (just enough to give us a large scale Euclidean geometry), then the negative binding energy exactly cancels the positive mass and expansion energy. But it is not obvious that the zero calculation is still valid using general relativity; there is dispute over whether a calculation of total energy makes sense, when there is nothing outside to reference, and now we would have to include in the dark energy, and that has no classical analog.
But this zero energy solution is my favorite way to think about it.
Zero? Yes, it is possible. Potential energy is difficult to notice unless you try to move to a very different location.
I say "possible" because if you do a classical calculation for the total energy, and assume that the mass density is at the "critical" value (just enough to give us a large scale Euclidean geometry), then the negative binding energy exactly cancels the positive mass and expansion energy. But it is not obvious that the zero calculation is still valid using general relativity; there is dispute over whether a calculation of total energy makes sense, when there is nothing outside to reference, and now we would have to include in the dark energy, and that has no classical analog.
But this zero energy solution is my favorite way to think about it.
No comments:
Post a Comment