Dark energy from the gas of wormholes

TL;DR

This paper explores how a gas of virtual wormholes in space-time foam can explain dark energy and dark matter, showing that vacuum polarization effects and wormhole contributions can account for observed cosmological phenomena.

Contribution

It introduces a model where virtual wormholes in space-time foam influence vacuum energy and curvature, providing a novel explanation for dark energy and dark matter.

Findings

Virtual wormholes produce a finite zero-point energy density.

Vacuum polarization effects are negligible for actual wormholes.

Wormholes' contribution can explain dark energy phenomena.

Abstract

We assume the space-time foam picture in which the vacuum is filled with a gas of virtual wormholes. It is shown that virtual wormholes form a finite (of the Planckian order) value of the energy density of zero-point fluctuations. However such a huge value is compensated by the contribution of virtual wormholes to the mean curvature and the observed value of the cosmological constant is close to zero. A non-vanishing value appears due to the polarization of vacuum in external classical fields. In the early Universe some virtual wormholes may form actual ones. We show that in the case of actual wormholes vacuum polarization effects are negligible while their contribution to the mean curvature is apt to form the observed dark energy phenomenon. Using the contribution of wormholes to dark matter and dark energy we find estimates for characteristic parameters of the gas of wormholes.