Considerations of Cosmic Acceleration

Abstract

I discuss a solution to the dark energy problem, which arises when the visible universe is approximated by a black hole, in a quasi-static asymptotically-flat approximation. Using data, provided by WMAP7, I calculate the Schwarzschild radius $r_S$ and compare to the measured physical radius of the visible universe, bounded by the surface of last scatter. The ratio, $\epsilon(t_0) = r/r_S$ is found to be comparable to $\epsilon = 1$, as allowed by the holographic principle. The measurement of a shift parameter, $\sigma$, introduced by Bond, Efstathiou and Tegmark in 1997, plays an important role in the accuracy of the calculation. The approximation leads to a surprisingly small discrepancy, presumably explicable by the de Sitter, and expanding, nature of the actual universe.