In a patch of space the size of your room, dark energy is so scant that it is nearly impossible to detect. These facts alone restrict the density of dark energy to the caloric content of a pinch of sugar in a cubic metre. This, in a nutshell, is the cosmological constant problem, and it has come to be called rightly as “the worst theoretical prediction in the history of physics”. So in his equations, Einstein cancelled the cosmological constant against the energy of matter. The cosmological constant appears to be fine-tuned over a breathtaking 122 decimal places.

Source: The Hindu September 15, 2023 13:20 UTC