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mesouschrist t1_jc7gs3v wrote

Reply to comment by Aseyhe in Does space expansion occur uniformly in all directions and dimensions? by Tank_AT

Another question: it is often said in, frankly mostly youtube videos, that in the very late universe "the expansion of the universe will rip apart atoms and eventually protons." So is this just completely wrong? I see the statement in your (2) reference saying that atoms do not, in fact have to "resist the temptation” to expand.

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Aseyhe t1_jc7ncfu wrote

That happens only if dark energy is phantom energy, which is not really supported by observations or theory, but can't be definitely ruled out either. Essentially what happens is that in these models, the pressure of the dark energy fluid is sufficiently negative that expansion raises its energy density. With higher energy density, its gravitational repulsion becomes stronger. Eventually the repulsion becomes strong enough to separate atoms.

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