We know space is expanding at a rate of roughly 432 miles/light-year/year. Since Einstein showed that time was intrinsically linked into the 4 dimensional structure of spacetime one would logically wonder if space expansion is linked to the passage of time. Due to the cosmic microwave background we can infer that the universe is 13.5-13.9 billion years old. 1 light-year is ~5.88 trillion miles or $5.8786 × 10^{12}$ miles if we divide $$5.8786 * 10^{12} /432$$ we find that the universe is expanding by a factor of 1/13607870370.4 every year so every year any given piece of space increases in size by about a 13.6 billionth of its size. Looking at the fact that every year the universe also gets a ~13.6 billionth of its age older. Looking at that link made me wonder whether the passage of time, and cosmological expansion are the same cosmological constant type effect but one on space and the other on time. Does space expand proportionally to the age of the universe?
-
1Is time inflating… Physicists use the word “inflation” to mean something much more dramatic than the kind of cosmological expansion happening now. (I’m not suggesting that time is doing either.) – Ghoster Mar 21 '24 at 23:46
-
1The next-to-the-last equation here gives the spatial scale factor as a (non-linear) function of time. – Ghoster Mar 21 '24 at 23:58
-
It's not clear what you are asking. Note that passage of time is not a physical concept, and neither is expansion of space. – Sten Mar 22 '24 at 02:54
-
1Does this answer your question? Does time expand with space? (or contract) – John Rennie Mar 22 '24 at 05:57
-
Voting to reopen. A perfectly clear question - the questioner wants to know if the cosmological constant has changed over time,. – gandalf61 Mar 22 '24 at 08:26
-
@gandalf61 Where does that reading come from? (Also, I would note there are already two answers not addressing that idea, and I cannot understand how the question relates to those answers either.) – Sten Mar 22 '24 at 16:49
-
@Sten My mistake. Not cosmological constant. I meant to say Hubble constant. Which is clearly what the questioner intended. – gandalf61 Mar 22 '24 at 17:50
2 Answers
In the FLRW model of the expanding universe, the metric is given in terms of the co-moving coordinates: $$ds^2=dt^2-a(t)^2\bigg[{dr^2\over1-kr^2}+r^2\sin^2(\theta)d\theta^2+r^2d\phi^2\bigg]$$ where the function $a(t)$ is the scale factor of the universe that satisfies the Friedmann equations: $$\bigg({\dot a\over a}\bigg)^2+{kc^2\over a^2}-{\Lambda c^2\over 3}={kc^4\over 3}\rho,$$ and $$2{\ddot a\over a}+\bigg({\dot a\over a}\bigg)^2+{kc^2\over a^2}-\Lambda c^2=-kc^2p.$$ These equations were known some years prior to Hubble's discovery of the expanding universe, at any rate, however, they show the expansion rate of the universe as a function of time, e.g. Hubble's constant is written: $$H_0={\dot a(t)\over a(t)}\bigg|_{t={\text{now}}}.$$ So we can see the explicit dependence of Hubble's constant on matter/energy, including the cosmological constant: $$\bigg(H(t)\bigg)^2=-{kc^2\over a^2}+{\Lambda c^2\over 3}+{kc^4\over 3}\rho.$$
- 3,960
-
1
-
1
-
1@Sten But aren’t the stated Friedmann equations for cosmological, not conformal, time? – Ghoster Mar 22 '24 at 06:00
-
1@Ghoster indeed the overdots are derivatives with respect to the proper time. – Sten Mar 22 '24 at 06:58
-
1
-
-
@Ghoster Thanks for pointing that out, that is the second mistake I made in writing that metric. You know when you work with the radial coordinate only that square root often appears (as when calculating red shifts...) Oh well better luck next time. – Albertus Magnus Mar 23 '24 at 01:11
Yes. New time is created (it "expands") as the age of the universe increases. The big bang is at the center. The age of the universe is the radius of the hypersphere. The past universe is a smaller hypersphere inside the present one.
- 257
-
Comments have been moved to chat; please do not continue the discussion here. Before posting a comment below this one, please review the purposes of comments. Comments that do not request clarification or suggest improvements usually belong as an answer, on [meta], or in [chat]. Comments continuing discussion may be removed. – Buzz Mar 22 '24 at 15:26