A new theory suggests dark matter in the universe is being slowly consumed by dark energy.
As this dark energy interacts with the matter, it slows down the growth of the cosmos, the University of Portsmouth reported.
"This study is about the fundamental properties of space-time. On a cosmic scale, this is about our Universe and its fate," said Professor David Wands, Director of Portsmouth's Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation."If the dark energy is growing and dark matter is evaporating we will end up with a big, empty, boring Universe with almost nothing in it."
In 1998 scientists announced that the universe is expanding at an accelerated rate, leading to the idea of a constant dark energy across space-time; this new study may provide a better explanation for the phenomenon.
"Much more data is available now than was available in 1998 and it appears that the standard model is no longer sufficient to describe all of the data. We think we've found a better model of dark energy," Wand said.
In the past, the simplest explanation for the acceleration of the universe's expansion was that empty space has an energy density that was a cosmological constant. The researchers suggest this model cannot explain the full range of astronomical data researchers have access to, such as a slower-than-expected rate of galaxy expansion.
"The paper does look very interesting. Any time there is a new development in the dark energy sector we need to take notice since so little is understood about it. I would not say, however, that I am surprised at the results, that they come out different than in the simplest model with no interactions. We've known for some months now that there is some problem in all data fitting perfectly to the standard simplest model."
The findings were published in a recent edition of the journal Physical Review Letters.
