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This article discusses how a new incarnation of Einstein's cosmological constant may point the way beyond general relativity. Quantum mechanics and relativity, combined with recent evidence of an accelerating universe, have led physicists to resurrect the cosmological term that Einstein introduced and later repudiated. But this term now represents a mysterious form of energy that permeates empty space and drives an accelerated cosmic expansion. The efforts to explain the origin of this energy may help scientists move beyond Einstein's theory in ways that are likely to change our fundamental understanding of the universe. The heart of Einstein's general theory of relativity is the field equation, which states that the geometry of spacetime (G subμν, Einstein's curvature tensor) is determined by the distribution of matter and energy (T subμν, the stress-energy tensor), where G is Newton's constant characterizing the strength of gravity. INSETS: A Change of Meaning;Models of the Cosmos: Then and Now;A Checkered History.

We examine the thermal evolution of particle number densities in the early Universe when the particles have a finite diffusion length. Assuming that annihilations are impossible when the mean separation of the particles is larger than their diffusion length, we derive a version of the Boltzmann equation for freeze-out in this scenario and an approximate solution, accurate to better than 2%. The effect of a finite diffusion length is to increase the final relic freeze-out abundance over its corresponding value when diffusion effects are ignored. When diffusion is limited only by scattering off of the thermal background, and the annihilation cross section is bounded by unitarity, a significant effect on the freeze-out abundance requires a scattering cross section much larger than the annihilation cross section. A similar effect is demonstrated when the relic particles are produced via the freeze-in mechanism, but in this case the finite diffusion length is due to the scattering of particles that annihilate into the relic particle of interest. For freeze-in, the effect of a finite diffusion length is to reduce the final relic particle abundance. The effects of a finite diffusion length are most important when the scattering cross section or the relic mass are very large. While we have not found a particularly compelling example where this would affect previous results, with the current interest in new dark matter candidates it could become an important consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hypothetical SU(3) flavor-singlet dibaryon state S with strangeness -2 has been discussed as a dark-matter candidate capable of explaining the curious 5-to-1 ratio of the mass density of dark matter to that of baryons. We study the early-universe production of dibaryons and find that irrespective of the hadron abundances produced by the QCD quark/hadron transition, rapid particle reactions thermalized the S abundance, and it tracked equilibrium until it "froze out" at a tiny value. For the plausible range of dibaryon masses (1860-1890 MeV) and generous assumptions about its interaction cross sections, S's account for at most 10-11 of the baryon number and, thus, cannot be the dark matter. Although it is not the dark matter, if the S exists, it might be an interesting relic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]