Science
Dark Energy Prediction Off by Factor of 10 to 120th Power
Lex Fridman Podcast
#497 – Biggest Mysteries in Physics: Antimatter, Dark Energy & ToE – Don Lincoln
"We can calculate what the density of energy is due to quantum field theory. And that number is the rather embarrassing 10 to the 120 power times, that's a 1 with 120 zeros after it, bigger than the measurement of dark energy."
Lincoln describes what he calls the worst prediction in physics: quantum field theory's vacuum energy calculation exceeds observed dark energy density by 120 orders of magnitude. Even if new physics appears at current accelerator energies—cutting the discrepancy to 10^60—the gap remains catastrophic. He suggests an unknown field may cancel most vacuum energy but leave the observed small residual, though perfect cancellation is theoretically easier than imperfect.
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Lex Fridman Podcast