"Void that is truly empty solves dark energy puzzle" is the tantalizing title of an article by the science journalist Rachel Courtland in the periodical New Scientist. Courtland's article is based on a refereed paper in the area of theoretical physics published this month in the journal Physical Review, authored by Kent State's Prof. Peter Tandy and three other scientists.
The work by Prof. Tandy and his collaborators represents a discovery within the framework of the highly mathematical theory of Quantum Chromodynamics, and has a connection to the Cosmological Constant. The Cosmological Constant was first introduced by Einstein, but was later abandoned by him; he once described it as his "biggest blunder". New discoveries about the universe since Einstein's death have revived the Cosmological Constant. The Feynman diagram below, reproduced from the paper of Tandy et al., has a connection to this new idea.
