I did some searching for the strange quark article and came across this:
http://www.newscientistspace.com/article.ns?id=dn8566
excerpt:
"But it is still not clear what dark energy is. Theories range from a
"vacuum" energy of space itself which is fixed in value - an idea
Einstein proposed as the "cosmological constant" - to more exotic
possibilities, such as quintessence - a type of energy field that can
vary over space and time.
So far, supernova studies have supported the cosmological constant -
one recent study of 70 supernovae reported that the strength of
repulsion given by dark energy could not have changed by more than
about 20% over the past eight billion years.
Reliable data
But supernovae are too dim to be seen over the largest cosmic
distances. So some astronomers argue that gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) -
violent, fleeting explosions that accompany the deaths of some massive
stars - are better signposts. At about 100 times brighter than
supernovae, they can be seen at much greater distances.
Now, astronomer Bradley Schaefer of Louisiana State University in Baton
Rouge, US, has used observations of 52 GRBs to suggest that dark energy
has changed over time.
In the largest GRB study of its kind, Schaefer found that 12 of the
most distant GRBs - lying nearly 13 billion light years away - were all
brighter than expected, suggesting the universe was expanding at a
slower rate than it is today.
He says the fact that all 12 were brighter than would be predicted by a
cosmological constant increases his confidence in the data. "It's like
if you flip a coin and get 12 heads in a row," Schaefer told New
Scientist. View several graphs of his results, here.
He says that rather than pushing space apart, dark energy appears to
have changed over time and was in fact drawing space together in the
early universe. What that means for the fate of the universe is not
clear, but it seems to open a Pandora's box of outlandish possibilities
for dark energy, he says: "With quintessence, you can do anything you
want."
Standard candles
But other researchers are yet to be convinced. Type Ia supernovae all
explode with the same intrinsic energy, making them ideal "standard
candles" to measure distance. But GRBs explode with a variety of
energies. So Schaefer used five observed properties of the bursts -
such as how their brightness changes over time - to estimate their
intrinsic brightness, and thus their distance."
<end>
Now a change in the fermion and boson ratio would change the
cosmological constant. It might be non-homogenous and time variant.
It's likely anything but constant. We might need a "new candle" with
which to measure or a different candle depending on which direction you
look.
-----Original Message-----
From: Horace Heffner
On Jan 12, 2006, at 6:04 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
The current cosmic argument on the ZPF is whether it is dominated >
by virtual fermions or virtual bosons. The former would represent >
"dark energy" and the latter "dark matter". Their ratio could > explain
some recent cosmic anomalies.
The answer I think, in the presence of hydrogen, has to be *strange
quarks*, and not necessarily even "virtual". I read a recent article
(can't find it right now) that found the magnetic field of the proton
is due in modest part (about 10-15 percent if I recall correctly) to
the periodic creation and annihilation of strange quark pairs in the
close vicinity of the proton. Yes, it was a serious article!
Horace Heffner
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