10.12.2010

Michal Krizek (Institute of Mathematics, Academy of Sciences, Prague)

Does the law of conservation of energy hold?

Summary:
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In 1998 astronomers discovered that the expansion of the
Universe accelerates. The reason of this phenomenon is the so-called
dark energy that acts almost uniformly everywhere.
Hence, it also has a partial influence on the Hubble constant
that characterizes velocity of this expansion. Its
actual value is 10 m/yr on the
distance of one astronomical unit, i.e., the distance Sun-Earth.
This value is large enough for the
expansion to be observable even within the Solar system.
We present more than 10 examples supporting
this conjecture. We also show that antigravitational forces and
the energy needed for the accelerated expansion
may come from the gravitational aberration which is a direct consequence
of causality and the finite speed of gravitational interaction.
Antigravity is thus not a new fifth force, but only a by-product of
usual gravitational forces. Moreover, it seems that
there is no longer conservation of energy in reality.