Universe on Pause

This research challenges the conventional lore about the cosmological history of the universe, which posits that after the Big Bang, the universe passed through a standard sequence of different cosmological epochs, with each epoch dominated by a different kind of energy.  However, the UA researchers have discovered that the universe likely also passed through a strange period of "stasis" never before deemed possible --- an eerie period of stillness during which the energy composition of the universe remained absolutely steady despite cosmological expansion.   This idea was developed by UA Physics Professor Keith Dienes, his former postdocs Brooks Thomas and Lucien Heurtier, and former graduate student Fei Huang.  Professor Tim Tait from UC Irvine rounded out the team, and Keith's current graduate student Jonah Barber has also recently joined the ongoing project.  Even if the universe did not start in the magically balanced state that "stasis" requires, Dienes and his collaborators demonstrated that the universe will necessarily evolve into such a state and remain there for an extended period of time.    According to New Scientist, this "bold new idea... may dramatically rewrite the history of the universe" and demonstrates that "stillness may be as innate a part of the universe as change".