The rapid acceleration of the universe’s expansion continues to challenge our understanding of fundamental physics.
Why the universe is expanding faster and faster remains one of the most intriguing open questions in modern physics. Current theories cannot fully account for this behavior using the existing picture of the physical world, which combines Einstein’s general theory of relativity with the standard model of particle physics.
To bridge this gap, scientists have proposed the existence of a mysterious force called “dark energy,” thought to be driving the accelerating expansion of the universe.
Even so, where this dark energy comes from is still unknown. Now, an international research team from the Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM) at the University of Bremen and the Transylvanian University of Brașov in Romania is offering a different way to think about the problem. Their work suggests that cosmic expansion may be explained, at least partly, without invoking dark energy at all.
The large-scale evolution of the universe is typically described using general relativity together with the Friedmann equations. Within this framework, however, explaining the observed acceleration requires scientists to insert an extra “dark energy term” into the equations manually.
Because this solution is widely viewed as unsatisfactory, the ZARM researchers and their Romanian collaborators explored an alternative path. Their results, published in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, rely on an extension of general relativity (GR) known as Finsler gravity, a theoretical framework that has been developed over recent years.
Compared with the traditional formulation of GRT, this approach uses a more general description of spacetime, allowing gravitational effects of gases to be modeled more accurately than is possible within standard GR.
It does work without “dark energy”
When the research team calculated the Finsler extension of the Friedmann equations, they made an exciting discovery: the Finsler-Friedmann equations already predict an accelerated expansion of the universe even in a vacuum – without the need to introduce additional assumptions or “dark energy” terms.
“This is an exciting indication that we may be able to explain the accelerated expansion of the universe, at least in parts, without dark energy, on the basis of a generalized spacetime geometry,” says Christian Pfeifer, ZARM physicist and member of the research team. “This new geometric point of view on the dark energy problem opens up new possibilities for better understanding the laws of nature in the cosmos.”
Reference: “From kinetic gases to an exponentially expanding universe — the Finsler-Friedmann equation” by Christian Pfeifer, Nicoleta Voicu, Annamária Friedl-Szász and Elena Popovici-Popescu, 14 October 2025, Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics.
DOI: 10.1088/1475-7516/2025/10/050
Never miss a breakthrough: Join the SciTechDaily newsletter.
Follow us on Google and Google News.
13 Comments
I sent working models of this to NASA in April, 2023. ESA and Yale, also. Those who’ve seen them have my contact info.
Send here too. Brainiac.
Thanks for the input.
I can explain the acceleration of the galaxies without invoking dark matter or dark energy.
So how does this differ from GR? How does modeling the gravity of gases account for what we observe as dark energy? What else would this effect, gravitational lensing, the interstellar medium? Are there any implications for dark matter?
I hate these articles where they provide no context or substance just an announcement. It’s like reading a press release or something.
I uploaded my first ‘wheel rotation intensified induced coherent radiant pulsing lines of gravity force’ demonstration video to YouTube in 2012, since moved with two others to a new Odysee dot com video channel, now with one more. Based upon my model of gravity (and inertia, June 2025; https://odysee.com/@charlesgshaver:d/5Gravity:c) we don’t really know that the universe is expanding or how large or old it is. I find that photons of light accelerate (blueshift) on expanding lines of gravity force when emitted by their sources and decelerate (redshift) on contracting lines of gravity force when arriving in earth’s ambient field. Gravity lensing seems proof enough that lines of gravity force can affect individual photons in deep space. My demonstrations are cheaply and easily reproduced by those with truly “scientific” minds. Cc: four authors.
This is a breakthrough for those of us looking beyond ‘placeholder’ physics. If the Finsler-Friedmann equations can predict acceleration through geometry alone, it suggests we are actually living in a much more complex manifold than standard 4D spacetime.
I’ve been looking into a 9D framework that aligns perfectly with this: 3 dimensions of matter, 3 of energy, and 3 of time. In this view, ‘Dark Energy’ isn’t a mysterious substance; it’s a geometric side-effect. Just as Finsler gravity says expansion is predicted by the geometry of kinetic gases, a 9D universe suggests that our 3D ‘matter’ slice is simply rotating through 3D time and energy dimensions. This provides the ‘push’ we see without needing to invent dark energy terms.
Has the research team considered how this Finsler extension behaves if the temporal component is expanded to three dimensions? It feels like we are finally moving toward a ‘Unified Geometric Theory’ where the shape of the universe explains its contents
Does this get rid of the so-called “dark matter” fudge factor also?
Someone should write an article about how many old stakeholders that have built their careers in physics around the illusion of dark energy/matter will be impacted by their erasure.
Dark energy is a product of a misinterpretation of so called ‘standard candles’ which might not be as standard as scientists think they are. Can Cepheid variables and type 1a supernova all have intrinsic luminosity? Another example of ‘Constants’ not being so Constant after all
The DESI results show that ‘dark energy’ is not a constant, which flies in the face of its’ role as a placeholder in the Standard Model. Another leak in the Big Bang theory.
Dark energy is a myth introduced to justify another myth, the LCDM model of the universe. A Newtonian model of pulsating universe, where the pulsation is due to the oscillation between two potential states of super galaxy clusters, “maximum internal energy” and “maximum speed” can explain the accelerating expansion without dark energy.
Have they looked at the work of Rajesh Gupta?
If there was dark energy wouldn’t it block the light from the stars?