Nanoparticle Unification of Dark Matter and Dark Energy? Cancellation of the Vacuum Catastrophe

Abstract

Laboratory creation of stable magic-number protonated water nanoclusters from amorphous water-ice under simulated astrophysical conditions suggests the possible ejection of such nanoparticles from ubiquitous amorphous water-ice-covered cosmic dust to interstellar space. The quantum properties of these quintessential nanoparticles introduce a tantalizing prospect that bridges the origins of dark matter and dark energy. The quantum-entangled diffuse Rydberg electronic states inherent to cosmic water nanoclusters make them plausible candidates for baryonic dark matter. Moreover, they exhibit the capacity to absorb, through the microscopic dynamical Casimir effect, virtual photons originating from zero-point-energy vacuum fluctuations occurring above the water-nanocluster vibrational frequency cutoff. This selective interaction leaves only vacuum fluctuations below these frequencies with gravitational significance, cancelling the vacuum-energy catastrophe and yielding a shared genesis for dark matter and dark energy. These findings coalesce into a cosmological framework depicting a cyclic universe, with cosmic water nanoclusters constituting a quintessence scalar field, instead of adhering to the multiverse concept based on cosmic inflation theory. Recent observations of CMB birefringence support this quintessence.