Dark bubble and microcosm: gravity at millionths of a meter ⚡ экспресс
The dark bubble model exploits instabilities underlying the swampland conjectures of de Sitter space, making the accelerating expansion of the universe inevitable and explaining the positive cosmological constant. Its distinctive consequence is a unique hierarchy of scales: cosmological, gravitational, string, and higher-dimensional scale. In particular, the model naturally predicts the existence of a micron-sized dark dimension and the weakening of gravity at corresponding distances, realizing the fat graviton scenario. Additional predictions include a string scale on the order of tens of TeV and a measurable positive spatial curvature of the universe. An overview of key aspects highlights testable implications for gravity and cosmology.
The Universe behaves like a soap bubble swelling in a multidimensional foam. The dark bubble model explains why it's expanding ever faster: the spacetime bubble grows, and its membrane gains a tiny thickness — about a micron, like a bacterium. At such distances, gravity 'blurs' across this thickness and weakens.
We can test this by measuring the attraction between microscopic particles. At a distance of a micron, the force would be a couple of percent weaker than Newton's textbook law predicts. This weakening is inextricably linked to the accelerated expansion of the cosmos — both are manifestations of the same phenomenon. The model also points to a slight curvature of space, which astronomers hope to detect.
🎯 A micron (one millionth of a meter) is the typical size of a bacterium. If such a dimension existed, it would literally be under our microscope.