PROVIDENCE – Brown University physics professor Stephon Alexander will use a $1 million grant received from the Simmons Foundation to look to expand Albert Einstein’s gravity theory to explain various mysteries, such as dark matter and black hole singularities.
Brown said Alexander is working to adapt a mathematical theory. Alexander said in a statement that early indications suggest the modified theory may offer explanations for dark matter, which is thought to account for the majority of the universe’s mass, and dark energy, the force behind the universe’s expansion.
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Alexander’s research may also shine a spotlight on black hole singularities, which Einstein’s theory predicts an infinite curvature of time and space, Brown said.
“This is a modification to general relativity that makes a series of very sharp predictions,” Alexander said in a statement. “What we want to do is continue to develop this theory and see if we can reconcile it with some of the areas where Einstein’s theory runs into trouble.”
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.
