Lombriser suggested that fluctuations in the field could also behave like a so-called axion field, with axions being hypothetical particles that are one of the suggested candidates for dark matter. This invisible material outnumbers ordinary matter particles by a ratio of 5 to 1, but remains mysterious because it doesn't interact with light.

Lombriser's new framework also tackles some of cosmology's other pressing problems, including the nature of dark matter. 'I was surprised that the cosmological constant problem simply seems to disappear in this new perspective on the cosmos,' Lombriser said. In the model, these field fluctuations result in larger redshifts for distant galaxy clusters than traditional cosmological models predict. And so, the cosmological constant remains true to the model's predictions. The cosmological constant still varies with time, but in this model that variation is due to changing particle mass over time, not the expansion of the universe. The cosmological constant is set by the field's mass and because this field fluctuates, the masses of the particles it gives birth to also fluctuate. In this picture, these particles arise from a field that permeates space-time. The effects we observe that point to expansion are instead explained by the evolution of the masses of particles - such as protons and electrons - over time. In Lombriser's mathematical interpretation, the universe isn't expanding but is flat and static, as Einstein once believed. 'In this work, we put on a new pair of glasses to look at the cosmos and its unsolved puzzles by performing a mathematical transformation of the physical laws that govern it,' Lombriser told Live Science via email. The cosmological constant has therefore been described as 'the worst prediction in the history of physics.'Ĭosmologists often try to resolve the discrepancy between the different values of lambda by proposing new particles or physical forces but Lombriser tackles it by reconceptualizing what's already there. The cosmological constant has been a headache for cosmologists because predictions of its value made by particle physics differ from actual observations by 120 orders of magnitude.

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