phantom energy

English

Etymology 1

phantom +‎ energy. From the mysterious nature of this energy loss.

Noun

phantom energy (uncountable)

1. (energy efficiency) The energy that is lost due to standby electronic activity of equipment that is "off", on standby or sleep mode.

Related terms

• phantom drain
• phantom energy drain
• phantom energy loss

Etymology 2

Coined by physicist Robert R. Caldwell in 1998, in reference to the Star Wars movie "The Phantom Menace", in his paper "A Phantom Menace? Cosmological consequences of a dark energy component with super-negative equation of state" referring to the phantom energy menace that would lead to the Big Rip.

Noun

phantom energy (uncountable)

1. (cosmology, astrophysics, astronomy, physics) A category of dark energy, where dark energy is not fixed in amount nor in density, and continuously increases over time.

Hypernyms

• dark energy
• dark sector
• energy

Coordinate terms

• quintessence (a category of dark energy)
• cosmological constant (a category of dark energy, where dark energy is constant in density)

See also

• Big Rip (destruction of the Universe caused by ever increasing dark energy (ie. phantom energy))
• vacuum energy