Year: 2003
Type: article
Abstract: Recently it was found, in a broad class of models, that the dark energy density may change its sign during the evolution of the universe. This may lead to a global collapse of the universe within the time t c ~ 10 10 –10 11 years. Our goal is to find what bounds on the future lifetime of the universe can be placed by the next generation of cosmological observations. As an example, we investigate the simplest model of dark energy with a linear potential V (ϕ) = V 0 (1 + αϕ). This model can describe the present stage of acceleration of the universe if α is small enough. However, eventually the field ϕ rolls down, V (ϕ) becomes negative, and the universe collapses. The existing observational data indicate that the universe described by this model will collapse not earlier than t c ≳ 10 billion years from the present moment. We show that the data from SNAP and Planck satellites may extend the bound on the `doomsday' time to t c ≳ 40 billion years at the 95% confidence level.
Authors: Renata Kallosh, Jan Kratochvil, Andrei Linde, Eric V Linder, Marina Shmakova
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2126594611