A report by New Atlas quotes Dr. László Dobos, co-author of the new study, as confirming that when scientists use the simpler formulas, that practice "may introduce serious side effects, such as the need for dark energy, in the models designed to fit the observational data."
The report goes on to note that dark energy has only been inferred by noticing its apparent influence on other elements. Because of this, it becomes a convenient part of models that have unexplained holes. Which, naturally, doesn't mean it exists.
The new study looked at these issues by mimicking how gaps in the universe that are seemingly devoid of matter, along with known structures, would be affected by gravity. They discovered that different parts of the universe would expand at varying rates as opposed to the whole structure expanding uniformly.
The study was published by the Royal Astronomical Society.
