phantom energy

Meaning

Noun

• The energy that is lost due to standby electronic activity of equipment that is "off", on standby or sleep mode.
• A category of dark energy, where dark energy is not fixed in amount nor in density, and continuously increases over time.

Related

Broader meaning words

• dark energy
• dark sector
• energy

Origin

• phantom + energy.
• From the mysterious nature of this energy loss.
• Coined by physicist Robert R. Caldwell in 1998, in reference to the Star Wars movie , 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.