Hamburg 2016 – scientific programme

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GR: Fachverband Gravitation und Relativitätstheorie

GR 7: Cosmology

GR 7.5: Talk

Wednesday, March 2, 2016, 18:25–18:45, VMP6 HS A

Dark Energy Is Obsolete in Einstein-Dicke Cosmology — •Alexander Unzicker — Pestalozzi-Gymnasium München

Einstein's very first idea when dealing with general relativity was considering a variable speed of light in 1911. As it is little known, Robert Dicke in 1957 constructed an almost equivalent theory of gravity that is in agreement with all classical tests. However, Dicke's model leads to a different cosmology in which the redshift of distant galaxies is caused by a decrease of the speed of light.

Since there is no expansion of matter, just the spreading of light, no slowdown of the expansion due to gravity is expected. This absence of deceleration is precisely the anomaly (sometimes called `empty universe' model of supernova data) that is usually interpreted as accelerated expansion, caused by a hypothetical substance called dark energy. In Dicke's model, there is no need for dark energy, because the expansion of the universe itself is an illusion, originating from a decrease of the speed of light over cosmological times.