A fascinating new study conducted by theoretical physicists at Uppsala University in Sweden has suggested a completely new model of the universe as sitting on an expanding bubble inside an extra dimension, which may finally, once and for all, solve the mystery of dark energy.

As Sci-News reports, during the 1990s scientists first discovered that the universe was expanding at an astounding rate, which proved that deep space is anything but empty, and is full of what has been called dark energy. However, understanding the mysterious force of dark energy has been a challenging and daunting task for physicists, according to Dr. Souvik Banerjee, the lead author of the new study, who explained that string theory was hoped to finally hold an answer.

“It has long been hoped that string theory will provide the answer. According to this theory, all matter consists of tiny, vibrating ‘stringlike’ entities. The theory also requires there to be more spatial dimensions than the three that are already part of everyday knowledge.”

Using string theory as a template, theoretical physicists have spent the last 15 years trying to understand dark energy with no real luck, and it has been suggested that perhaps a completely new model of the universe needs to be concocted, according to Dr. Banerjee.

“For 15 years, there have been models in string theory that have been thought to give rise to dark energy. However, these have come in for increasingly harsh criticism, and several researchers are now asserting that none of the models proposed to date are workable.”

In the new Uppsala University study, theoretical physicists have managed to account for dark energy by creating a new model of the universe which is sitting on a bubble that continues to expand within an extra dimension. In fact, the entirety of the universe has been surmised to exist right on the edge of this bubble. And proving that string theory can truly work with this new model, physicists have demonstrated that expanding bubbles of this kind are perfectly acceptable within string theory.

Another exciting facet of this new research has shown that far from being the only universe sitting on the edge of a bubble, there theoretically could be a multitude of other universes that also have their own bubbles.

“The whole Universe is accommodated on the edge of this expanding bubble All existing matter in the Universe corresponds to the ends of strings that extend out into the extra dimension. We also show that expanding bubbles of this kind can come into existence within the framework of string theory. It is conceivable that there are more bubbles than ours, corresponding to other universes.”

The Uppsala University study which has created a new model of the universe that takes into account dark energy, and shows the universe as sitting on a bubble within an extra dimension, has been published in Physical Review Letters.