Is dark energy the fifth force?

Question

Apparently, dark energy is the "thing" that is expanding the galaxies away from each other, countering gravity, in fact it's speeding up! think about it; is this the answer to anti-gravity? Maybe we can find a whole lot of use if we find a way to use dark energy?
My question though is if dark energy is the fifth force that repels matter away from eachother.

Answer 1

Dark Energy isn't a force, any more than Gravity is a force. Both are a matter of the geometry of space and time (spacetime!), and how they interact with something called the Stress-Energy Tensor. Dark Energy is less of THING, than it is a place-holder to explain the following observation:



Space itself seems to be accelerating its expansion; space is currently expanding at a greater rate now than it is believed to have billions of years ago. There is no clear explanation as to how this is occurring, but while negative-energy solutions in Quantum Mechanics can allow for a possible repulsive force, it has nothing to do with "Dark Energy".



I think it's important to note that 'Dark Matter' appears to actually be something; sterile neutrinos, WIMPs (Weakly Interacting Massive Particles), or really elusive lost socks... the point is that observations indicate some form of matter in place.



Dark Energy is the "x" in the equation of, "What is driving the accelerated expansion of space?"

Answer 2

dark energy is kind of an insider joke in the science community.... tongue in cheek. at best, blatantly sarcastic at worst.



Look, everyone knows the universe is expanding, that's the fact at the heart of the big bang theory... what came as a surprise is that the acceleration is increasing, not dropping off or even leveling out, but speeding up. The simple and obvious "solution" to this troubling observation is that there is more MASS out there than we originally thought... picture this... your at a gun range with a shotgun shooting copper pellets out of a 12 gauge all day long... when you get to your last box of shells, you notice all your shots are going TWICE as far..... you haven't switched guns or barrels, the shells aren't any longer so there's no "extra powder"... wheres the added range and accuracy coming from? you naturally assume that the pellets in this last box are LEAD... they have MORE mass... its not the ONLY solution, but its the easiest to "guess"... since you cant open a shell and see, you refer to them as "dark" pellets... given enough time and testing you WILL be able to verify they are actually "lead" but until then, you don't want to look crazy to the copper pellet world.



That's how the term "dark matter" came about.... expansion = accelerating > explanation = more mass > mass needs name = dark matter



now some time shortly thereafter some smart a$$ PhD candidate with too much time on his hands cracks a joke about einstein and e=mc^2 and the idea occurs to him... "hey, if there matter, there's energy, so if there's "dark" matter.... yada yada yada and the term "dark energy" joins the ranks of stupidest scientific ideas of all time....



there is NO evidence for dark energy, there is no theory for it, no hypothesis for it, no suggestion of it as a possibility, let alone a necessity... it's just a JOKE, a wise-a$$ comment that since e=mc^2, then the inverse must be true... it has NO place in science as an answer to a problem or an observation... its existence isn't indicated by ANY phenomenon.... there's no REASON why it MIGHT exist...



physicists don't WANT OR NEED additional energy for their model of the universe to work or make sense.... so, they know that people who refer to "dark energy" are just dilettantes and amateurs, they aren't "clued in"

Answer 3

Nobody can say for sure if it's a fifth fource until we know what Dark Energy really is. We know what it does, but there is currently no explanation for what causes it. It seems far too weak to be of any use as a source of energy on Earth, however.