A model that puts the age of the universe at 26.7 billion years, with no dark matter and no dark energy, has passed several major cosmological tests, according to a new study from the University of Ottawa.
The model, called CCC+TL, combines covarying coupling constants with tired light. It argues that the forces of nature weaken as the universe ages, and that light loses energy as it travels across vast distances. Those two effects, the researchers say, can explain observations usually attributed to dark matter and dark energy.
Rajendra Gupta, an adjunct professor of physics at the University of Ottawa, developed the model with postdoctoral researcher Nikolaos Samaras. Their latest paper, published in the journal Universe, tested it against the amounts of hydrogen, helium and other light elements formed soon after the Big Bang. The results matched the standard model.
The team also applied the model to all 175 galaxies in the SPARC database and found it could reproduce their rotation curves without dark matter. It agreed with cosmic-chronometer measurements, which use the ages of galaxies to track how fast the universe has expanded.
The standard model puts the age of the universe at about 13.8 billion years. Under CCC+TL, the universe would be nearly twice as old, and cosmic dawn would have arrived when the universe was about 4.6 billion years old rather than 300 million.
The evidence has limits. A supporting analysis of supernova time dilation remains under review, and the model’s application to the Bullet Cluster is an early proof of concept that needs more study.
Source: Phys.org
