The Bondi universe: Can negative mass drive the cosmological expansion?
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arXiv
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2026
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| author | Manfredi, Giovanni Rouet, Jean-Louis Miller, Bruce |
| author_facet | Manfredi, Giovanni Rouet, Jean-Louis Miller, Bruce |
| contents | We identify a new cosmological coincidence that parallels the well-known matter/dark-energy coincidence: the present-epoch transition of the universe from a weakly coupled (collisionless) to a strongly coupled (collisional) gravitational regime. Within a cosmological model containing equal amounts of positive and negative Bondi masses -- consistent with the weak equivalence principle and momentum conservation -- we show that this coupling transition naturally coincides with the shift from a coasting to an accelerating expansion. A linear response analysis of the corresponding Vlasov-Poisson system reveals that mixed positive-negative mass configurations are always unstable, with growth rates that increase at shorter wavelengths, thereby driving the system toward strong coupling. Using long-time, exact one-dimensional N-body simulations, we demonstrate that the universe undergoes three successive expansion phases: an initial ballistic regime, an intermediate random-walk acceleration driven by sporadic Bondi encounters, and finally a uniformly accelerating phase triggered by the formation of stable positive/negative mass pairs. The onset of this last phase occurs precisely when the coupling parameter crosses unity, linking the two cosmological coincidences through a single dynamical mechanism. These results suggest that cosmic acceleration may arise from the nonlinear dynamics of a gravitationally neutral mixed-mass universe, without invoking dark energy or a cosmological constant. |
| format | Preprint |
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arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_22910 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | The Bondi universe: Can negative mass drive the cosmological expansion? Manfredi, Giovanni Rouet, Jean-Louis Miller, Bruce Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology We identify a new cosmological coincidence that parallels the well-known matter/dark-energy coincidence: the present-epoch transition of the universe from a weakly coupled (collisionless) to a strongly coupled (collisional) gravitational regime. Within a cosmological model containing equal amounts of positive and negative Bondi masses -- consistent with the weak equivalence principle and momentum conservation -- we show that this coupling transition naturally coincides with the shift from a coasting to an accelerating expansion. A linear response analysis of the corresponding Vlasov-Poisson system reveals that mixed positive-negative mass configurations are always unstable, with growth rates that increase at shorter wavelengths, thereby driving the system toward strong coupling. Using long-time, exact one-dimensional N-body simulations, we demonstrate that the universe undergoes three successive expansion phases: an initial ballistic regime, an intermediate random-walk acceleration driven by sporadic Bondi encounters, and finally a uniformly accelerating phase triggered by the formation of stable positive/negative mass pairs. The onset of this last phase occurs precisely when the coupling parameter crosses unity, linking the two cosmological coincidences through a single dynamical mechanism. These results suggest that cosmic acceleration may arise from the nonlinear dynamics of a gravitationally neutral mixed-mass universe, without invoking dark energy or a cosmological constant. |
| title | The Bondi universe: Can negative mass drive the cosmological expansion? |
| topic | Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.22910 |