Dark Energy indeed is a good choice (the mysterious repulsive force), problem is its most likely some scalar field from an as yet unidentified GUT theory.
At the present time, Inflation theorists posit the existence of the Inflaton field (for a number of reasons), rather than deriving it from Particle Physics assumptions. Hence the two fields are a little bit at odds and departed from one another at the current time. Hence, we don't KNOW whats fundamentally causing this, it could be a combination of many things.
There are some candidates, like the trace of a String theory fundamental tensor. However at this time no real theory has addressed dark energy in a reasonably conclusive way. Its a mystery at the present time, and probably the largest unsolved problem in Physics (Consider that the difference between Quantum field theory prediction and Experiment is about 126 ORDERS of Magnitude. The single largest disparity between theory and experiment in the history of science.)
At the present time, Inflation theorists posit the existence of the Inflaton field (for a number of reasons), rather than deriving it from Particle Physics assumptions. Hence the two fields are a little bit at odds and departed from one another at the current time. Hence, we don't KNOW whats fundamentally causing this, it could be a combination of many things.
There are some candidates, like the trace of a String theory fundamental tensor. However at this time no real theory has addressed dark energy in a reasonably conclusive way. Its a mystery at the present time, and probably the largest unsolved problem in Physics (Consider that the difference between Quantum field theory prediction and Experiment is about 126 ORDERS of Magnitude. The single largest disparity between theory and experiment in the history of science.)
