Expansion of the universe

A graphical representation of the expansion of the universe from the Big Bang to the present day, with the inflationary epoch represented as the dramatic expansion seen on the left. This visualization shows only a section of the universe; the empty space outside the diagram should not be taken to represent empty space outside the universe (which does not necessarily exist).
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The expansion of the universe is the increase in distance between gravitationally unbound parts of the observable universe with time.[1] It is an intrinsic expansion, so it does not mean that the universe expands "into" anything or that space exists "outside" it. To any observer in the universe, it appears that all but the nearest galaxies (which are bound to each other by gravity) recede at speeds that are proportional to their distance from the observer, on average. While objects cannot move faster than light, this limitation applies only with respect to local reference frames and does not limit the recession rates of cosmologically distant objects.

Cosmic expansion is a key feature of Big Bang cosmology. It can be modeled mathematically with the Friedmann–Lemaître–Robertson–Walker metric (FLRW), where it corresponds to an increase in the scale of the spatial part of the universe's spacetime metric tensor (which governs the size and geometry of spacetime). Within this framework, the separation of objects over time is associated with the expansion of space itself. However, this is not a generally covariant description but rather only a choice of coordinates. Contrary to common misconception, it is equally valid to adopt a description in which space does not expand and objects simply move apart while under the influence of their mutual gravity.[2][3][4] Although cosmic expansion is often framed as a consequence of general relativity, it is also predicted by Newtonian gravity.[5][6]

According to inflation theory, during the inflationary epoch about 10−32 of a second after the Big Bang, the universe suddenly expanded, and its volume increased by a factor of at least 1078 (an expansion of distance by a factor of at least 1026 in each of the three dimensions). This would be equivalent to expanding an object 1 nanometer across (10−9 m, about half the width of a molecule of DNA) to one approximately 10.6 light-years across (about 1017 m, or 62 trillion miles). Cosmic expansion subsequently decelerated to much slower rates, until around 9.8 billion years after the Big Bang (4 billion years ago) it began to gradually expand more quickly, and is still doing so. Physicists have postulated the existence of dark energy, appearing as a cosmological constant in the simplest gravitational models, as a way to explain this late-time acceleration. According to the simplest extrapolation of the currently favored cosmological model, the Lambda-CDM model, this acceleration becomes dominant in the future.

  1. ^ Overbye, Dennis (20 February 2017). "Cosmos Controversy: The Universe Is Expanding, but How Fast?". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 February 2017.
  2. ^ Peacock (2008), arXiv:0809.4573
  3. ^ Bunn & Hogg, American Journal of Physics 77, pp. 688–694 (2009), arXiv:0808.1081
  4. ^ Lewis, Australian Physics 53(3), pp. 95–100 (2016), arXiv:1605.08634
  5. ^ Tipler, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 282(1), pp. 206–210 (1996).
  6. ^ Gibbons & Ellis, Classical and Quantum Gravity 31 (2), 025003 (2014), arXiv:1308.1852