The universe isn't just any "thermodynamic system." It is governed by General Relativity, in which energy cannot be defined globally, because it is a frame-dependent quantity and there are no global reference frames. So you can't talk about the total energy of the universe and whether it remains constant or not.
There are certainly processes in GR which look like the creation of energy. For instance, vacuum energy has a constant energy density, but space expands on large scales, so that looks as if it could be creation of energy as the universe gets larger. Of course, in this example, as in all others, there is no creation of energy in any local reference frame.
There are certainly processes in GR which look like the creation of energy. For instance, vacuum energy has a constant energy density, but space expands on large scales, so that looks as if it could be creation of energy as the universe gets larger. Of course, in this example, as in all others, there is no creation of energy in any local reference frame.
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Energy can neither be created nor destroyed in *any* system. All the energy that exists in the universe today was generated by the Big Bang event some 13.7-billion years ago. That, of course, seems to violate the conservation-of-energy law, and is one of the greatest mysteries of science---how did the universe create itself?
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Energy cannot be created from nothing according to the law of conservation of mass and energy. It can, however, be transferred between mass and energy according to E = mc^2.
So my answer is no, it cannot be naturally created, only transformed from mass.
So my answer is no, it cannot be naturally created, only transformed from mass.
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Apparently dark energy does. The density of dark energy remains constant as the volume of the universe increases.