2024-07-03 04:00:12
Distant quasars, powered by supermassive black holes, offer a unique opportunity to explore new theories of gravity. A recent study has highlighted “teleparallel gravity” as a potential solution to tensions surrounding the expansion of the Universe, which the general relativity fails to resolve.
Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser
In the early 20th century, Edwin Hubble revolutionized our understanding of the universe by showing that its fabric was expanding. By the end of the same century, scientists had discovered that this expansion was accelerating, a phenomenon attributed to dark energy, with the cosmological constant as the best current explanation.
The Hubble constant, describing the relationship between a galaxy’s distance and its recession velocity, is at the heart of an intense debate in physics. Methods for calculating this constant do not agree, creating the “Hubble tension.” To solve this problem, some scientists are considering going beyond general relativity.
A study published in Physics of the Dark Universe by Celia Escamilla Rivera and her colleagues from the Instituto de Ciencias Nucleares explore this path using the gravity teleparallel. This theory alternative, also developed by Einstein, offers an approach without curvature of the’space-time and seeks to unify gravity with theelectromagnetism.
The researchers tested this theory using recent cosmological data and observations of distant quasars. These quasars, observed in ultravioletX-rays and visible lightprovide precise measurements of distances in the local Universe, crucial for confronting theoretical models.
Teleparallel gravity is gaining popularity, promising to solve the Hubble tension and explain cosmic acceleration without resorting to the cosmological constant. Rivera points out that this theory could provide a viable alternative to general relativity, with interesting and potentially revolutionary theoretical properties for our understanding of the Universe.
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