To specify: Dark energy is filling in the spaces that matter does not "inhabit". Quantum fluctuation is the temporary change in the amount of energy in a point in space. I'm sorry to inform you... but you are dead wrong if you make the assumption these two are the same.
Perhaps I should clarify- I meant that they have the same effect on space-time.
According to the inflationary principle of cosmology, the early stages of universal expansion were prompted by quantum fluctuations, resulting in the rapid propagation and expansion of space-time which we continue to see today.
However, those same fluctuations today do not expand space to the point where it could result in the high levels of starlight redshift observed from distant stars. Instead, they manifest themselves in the form of particle-antiparticle pairs materializing and dematerializing at random.
Theoretically (and to a limited degree, experimentally), dark energy seems to have assumed this role in modern universal expansion, serving to accelerate the expansion of space-time and therefore the universe as a whole by exerting a negative pressure on matter (as opposed to the positive, attracting force exerted by gravity) and therefore forcing space-time apart.
Of course, there's always the chance that I'm completely wrong and that I'm just going to end up making a complete fool of myself on a public forum, but that's a chance we all take.
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