An international group of astrophysicists from India and the USA has described the possible end of the Universe. According to a new theory, the comic space may reach the limits of expansion and simply cool down. The study was published on the portal of non-peer-reviewed scientific publications arXiv.
The experts' conclusions are based on the concept of holographic dark energy. Dark energy is considered the driving force behind the expansion of the Universe, but so far scientists have not found any signs of its existence.
One explanation for this paradox is the idea that both gravity and the three-dimensional space we know is actually an illusion. According to the holographic dark energy hypothesis, the universe has only two dimensions, but exotic quantum forces on its surface give rise to the appearance of three dimensions.
The consequence of this theory is the natural accelerated expansion of the Universe, which we define as dark energy.
Dark energy accounts for approximately 70% of the energy density of the entire cosmos. As the Universe expands, the density of both ordinary and dark matter falls, while dark energy becomes more and more abundant. To study the final long-term fate of the Universe, researchers ignored matter and focused solely on the evolution of holographic dark energy.
They found that, as expected, holographic dark energy will continue to expand the universe. But over time, its influence will slowly fade away and slow down the acceleration. The rate of expansion of the universe will begin to steadily decrease until the cosmos reaches an almost static value.
Researchers call this scenario the “Long Freeze,” in contrast to other commonly known fates of the universe, such as the “Big Freeze” (accelerated expansion continues unabated) and the “Big Crunch” (something causes the universe to collapse back to the point of the Big Bang).
A long freeze is not a rosy scenario. Although the expansion of the Universe will eventually stop, there will be no new sources of energy for all the matter within it. This means that eventually all stars will go out and disintegrate, and all subatomic particles will fly apart from each other.
