New cosmological models suggesting dark energy and dark matter actively interact could resolve the persistent Hubble tension while introducing phantom-like behaviors into universal expansion, according to recent studies published by physicists worldwide.
How Interacting Dark Sectors Create Phantom Expansion
Recent findings from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) indicate that dark energy may change over time, prompting researchers like Justin Khoury at the University of Pennsylvania, alongside Meng-Xiang Lin and Mark Trodden, to build new interaction models. According to Khoury, if dark energy and dark matter can influence one another, they produce behaviors that appear like phantom phenomena. Study co-authors note this provides a natural way to model cosmic evolution. Elsa Teixeira, a kosmolog from the University of Montpellier in France, explains that dark matter acts as a main brake on the expansion of the universe. If dark matter transfers a fraction of its energy to dark energy, as a January study in Physical Review D suggests, that brake loosens and causes the universe to expand even faster.
Resolving the Hubble Tension Through Dark Interaction
According to David Andriot, a physicist from CNRS (Pusat Riset Ilmiah Nasional Perancis), the emergence of phantom behavior is essentially a bookkeeping result. Every change or evolution of dark matter mass gets folded into the dark energy box. Harvard University physicist Cumrun Vafa agrees, stating that calculating dark energy independently from dark matter is a flawed assumption made by many cosmologists, including the DESI team. Beyond bookkeeping, Teixeira’s research shows that letting dark energy and dark matter interact can fix the Hubble tension. The standard cosmological model assumes the expansion rate measured from early universe light and late universe supernova explosions should match, yet measurements differ by about 9 percent. Teixeira’s model reveals that interaction makes this crisis an expected outcome.
String Theory and the Dark Dimension Hypothesis
If dark energy and dark matter interact, they likely share a common origin rooted in string theory. In 2022, Vafa and collaborators proposed that dark matter and dark energy link through a “dark dimension.” While string theory predicts six or seven compact extra dimensions near the Planck scale, researchers suggest the dark dimension could be much larger, around the micron scale. Georges Obied, a physicist from the University of Chicago, explains that gravitons could leak into this enlarged dark dimension, acquiring mass and acting as dark matter while coupling naturally to dark energy. In July 2025, Obied, Vafa, Alek Bedroya from Princeton, and David Wu from Harvard found this scenario aligns with DESI data, predicting that dark energy strength and dark matter mass will both decrease over time.
Did you know? Normal matter—the atoms making up stars, planets, and humans—accounts for somewhere between 1% and 10% of the universe, while dark matter and dark energy comprise the rest of the cosmos.
Astrophysical Tests for Dark Matter Forces
If dark matter connects to dark energy, dark matter particles could interact through a long-range force separate from gravity. Obied points out that researchers can test this observationally. Marc Kamionkowski of Johns Hopkins University and Michael Kesden of the University of Texas at Dallas researched a test in 2006, examining whether close galaxies leave distinct “tidal tails” if dark matter pulls more strongly on itself than on normal matter. While Kesden and Kamionkowski found no such effect then, their upper limit sits about 20 times higher than Vafa’s team proposes, meaning current theoretical predictions fall well within observational boundaries.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Hubble tension in cosmology?
The Hubble tension refers to the roughly 9 percent discrepancy between the universe’s expansion rate measured using early cosmic microwave background light versus measurements taken from local supernova explosions.
How do dark energy and dark matter interact in these new models?
Models show that dark matter can transfer tiny fractions of energy to dark energy, causing dark matter mass and dark energy density to shift simultaneously over cosmic history.
Can scientists test these dark interaction theories today?
Yes, according to researchers like Georges Obied and Marc Kamionkowski, astrophysical observations of galaxy interactions and data from instruments like DESI allow physicists to test these theoretical models against real data.
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