  Laboratory creation of stable magic-number protonated water nanoclusters from
amorphous water-ice under simulated astrophysical conditions suggests the
possible ejection of such nanoparticles from ubiquitous amorphous
water-ice-covered cosmic dust to interstellar space. The quantum properties of
these quintessential nanoparticles introduce a tantalizing prospect that
bridges the origins of dark matter and dark energy. The quantum-entangled
diffuse Rydberg electronic states inherent to cosmic water nanoclusters make
them plausible candidates for baryonic dark matter. Moreover, they exhibit the
capacity to absorb, through the microscopic dynamical Casimir effect, virtual
photons originating from zero-point-energy vacuum fluctuations occurring above
the water-nanocluster vibrational frequency cutoff. This selective interaction
leaves only vacuum fluctuations below these frequencies with gravitational
significance, cancelling the vacuum-energy catastrophe and yielding a shared
genesis for dark matter and dark energy. These findings coalesce into a
cosmological framework depicting a cyclic universe, with cosmic water
nanoclusters constituting a quintessence scalar field, instead of adhering to
the multiverse concept based on cosmic inflation theory. Recent observations of
CMB birefringence support this quintessence.
