Nobody would have guessed that we live in such a universe. Figure 11 is a plot of
as a function of
the scale factor
for this cosmology. At early times, the cosmological constant would have been
negligible, while at later times the density of matter will be essentially zero and the universe will be empty.
We happen to live in that brief era, cosmologically speaking, when both matter and vacuum are of
comparable magnitude. Within the matter component, there are apparently contributions from baryons
and from a non-baryonic source, both of which are also comparable (although at least their
ratio is independent of time). This scenario staggers under the burden of its unnaturalness, but
nevertheless crosses the finish line well ahead of any competitors by agreeing so well with the
data.
Apart from confirming (or disproving) this picture, a major challenge to cosmologists and physicists in the years to come will be to understand whether these apparently distasteful aspects of our universe are simply surprising coincidences, or actually reflect a beautiful underlying structure we do not as yet comprehend. If we are fortunate, what appears unnatural at present will serve as a clue to a deeper understanding of fundamental physics.
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