"It is quite easy to include a weight for empty space in the equations of gravity. Einstein did so in 1917, introducing what came to be known as the cosmological constant into his equations. His motivation was to construct a static model of the universe. To achieve this, he had to introduce a negative mass density for empty space, which just canceled the average positive density due to matter. With zero total density, gravitational forces can be in static equilibrium. Hubble's subsequent discovery of the expansion of the universe, of course, made Einstein's static model universe obsolete. ...The fact is that to this day we do not understand in a deep way why the vacuum doesn't weigh, or (to say the same thing in another way) why the cosmological constant vanishes, or (to say it in yet another way) why Einstein's greatest blunder was a mistake."
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Sources
Frank Wilczek & Betsy Devine, Longing for the Harmonies: Themes and Variations from Modern Physics (1987)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein
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Albert Einstein
1879 – 1955
deutsch-schweizerischer Physiker und Nobelpreisträger
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