Quintessence (physics)

In physics, quintessence is a hypothetical form of dark energy, more precisely a scalar field, postulated as an explanation of the observation of an accelerating rate of expansion of the universe, rather than due to a true cosmological constant. The first example of this scenario was proposed by Ratra and Peebles (1988). The concept was expanded to more general types of time-varying dark energy and the term "quintessence" was first introduced in a paper by R.R.Caldwell, Rahul Dave and Paul Steinhardt.It has been proposed by some physicists to be a fifth fundamental force. Quintessence differs from the cosmological constant explanation of dark energy in that it is dynamic, that is, it changes over time, unlike the cosmological constant which always stays constant. It is suggested that quint

Quintessence (physics)

In physics, quintessence is a hypothetical form of dark energy, more precisely a scalar field, postulated as an explanation of the observation of an accelerating rate of expansion of the universe, rather than due to a true cosmological constant. The first example of this scenario was proposed by Ratra and Peebles (1988). The concept was expanded to more general types of time-varying dark energy and the term "quintessence" was first introduced in a paper by R.R.Caldwell, Rahul Dave and Paul Steinhardt.It has been proposed by some physicists to be a fifth fundamental force. Quintessence differs from the cosmological constant explanation of dark energy in that it is dynamic, that is, it changes over time, unlike the cosmological constant which always stays constant. It is suggested that quint