UAH professor publishes paper reconceptualizing the creation of the universe
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) — When we think about the scientific theory of the creation of the universe, we often picture a massive explosion in association with the Big Bang theory, but that is not where things stopped.
The universe is constantly expanding, and researchers want to understand how that process is happening. They know that the universe remains in constant motion and is ever-growing, but the forces that drive the expansion of our cosmos remain a little mysterious.
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Much of our known universe is theorized to be made up of dark matter, which is essentially just matter that can not be measured. Likewise, the unmeasured force that accelerates our expansion is called dark energy. While we believe they are present, researchers have spent decades looking for evidence.
'The biggest stumbling block is that we're not finding these particles,' said UAH professor and researcher Richard Lieu. Lieu said about 20 years ago he began asking himself if researchers were on the right track.'The current paradigm, the situation is, that the more we don't find it, the more we throw money at it,' Lieu said.
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Researchers are looking into space and digging into the earth's crust to detect dark matter, but so far, little evidence has been found.'We seem to be insisting that 98% of the universe is comprising unknowns,' Lieu said. 'Using unknowns to explain unknowns is not enlightenment science.'In his paper published this year, Lieu offers an explanation for why we are not finding particle evidence. He said the universe is expanding by singularities, which happen very rarely and end very quickly. 'You can actually propel the universe, even into an accelerated state for example, by repeatedly having these episodes of temporal singularities, namely, short bursts which fill the whole of space simultaneously, and then, suddenly those particles disappear again,' Lieu said.It sounds a bit like magic, a force appearing then disappearing and leaving no evidence behind, but Lieu has done the math, and he said his theory obeys conservation laws. Moreover, it would explain why we do not observe dark matter and dark energy.'When all the obvious explanations are ruled out, then the more exotic options will have to be considered,' Lieu said.
Lieu published his research entitled 'Are dark matter and dark energy omnipresent?' in March in the journal of Classical and Quantum Gravity.Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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