See other Science/Tech Articles
Title: "There was no big bang!" Say Several Leading Cosmologists
Source:
The Daily Galaxy
URL Source: http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblo ... ologists-a-galaxy-classic.html
Published: Jun 14, 2010
Author: Casey Kazan
Post Date: 2010-06-14 11:08:26 by abraxas
Keywords: None
Views: 209
Comments: 15
"There was no big bang!" Say Several Leading Cosmologists "What banged?" Sean Carroll, CalTech -Moore Center for Theoretical Cosmology & Physics Several of the worlds leading astrophysicists believe there was no Big Bang that brought the universe and time into existence. Before the Big Bang, the standard theory assumes, there was no space, just nothing. Einstein merged the universe into a single entity: not space, not time, but spacetime. Proponents of branes propose that we are trapped in a thin membrane of space-time embedded in a much larger cosmos from which neither light nor energy -except gravity- can escape or enter and that that "dark matter" is just the rest of the universe that we can't see because light can't escape from or enter into our membrane from the great bulk of the universe. And our membrane may be only one of many, all of which may warp, connect, and collide with one another in as many as 10 dimensions -a new frontier physicists call the "brane world." Stephen Hawking, among others, envisions brane worlds perculating up out of the void, giving rise to whole new universes. One of the most important space probes of the century is the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) launched in 2001 to measure the temperature differences in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiatiion -the 14-billion year old Big Bang's remnant radiant heat . The anisotropies then in turn are used to measure the universe's geometry, content, and evolution; and, perhaps most importantly, to test the Big Bang model, and the cosmic inflation theory. WMAP data seem to support a universe that is dominated by dark energy in the form of a cosmological constant. Perhaps not surprisingly, there is no supportative data to date for Big Bang theory, although the results aren't sensitive enough to rule out the pervasive Big Bang/inflation model. The influence of gravitaional waves on polarization is different from that of overall energy distribution, so it should be possible to tell from polarization in the WMAP scans whether the variation is coming from contrasting energy density (heat) or gravitational waves that a Big Bang should have produced. The world's leading astrophysicists are confidemt that with a sensitive enough probe such as that by the new Planck telescope with its more detailed CMB plots, that they can reduce the level of uncertainty low enough so that they can say definitively whether the gravitational waves that should have been created by the Big Bang as present. If this next generation Planck Telescope shows that there is no onvious distortions caused by gravity waves, it will rule out the Big Bang plus inflation theory -an add-on theory that explains the phenomenal sudden expansion of space from a tiny point. In it's place will be new models that support what many leading cosmologists see as our universe to be proved to be one of just many in an eternal cycle of birth and rebirth. Models of the universe that involve a bouncing brane or a Big Crunch rather than a start from scratch Big Bang predict much smaller gravity waves being produced than would come from a Big Bang. If the universe actually went through cycles of expansion and contraction, it is possible that the uneven distributions in the early post-Big Bang universe that resulted in the formation of galaxies were leftovers from the universe before. Only gravity can't exist soley in a specific brane, but wanders where it will, leaking off our brane into what physicists call "the bulk" -- the rest of space-time. Brane theory offer an fascinating and plausable explanation for why gravity is such a weakling: Maybe it's not any weaker than the other forces, but just concentrated somewhere else in the bulk, or on another brane, providing the key to understanding the dark matter that makes up 90 % of our universe. If our brane is but a small slice of a much larger cosmos, however, the "dark matter" might be nothing but ordinary matter trapped on another brane. Dark matter is no longer some mysterious unknown, but the force at the heart of the brane-brane interaction. With the brane model the universe goes through an eternal cosmic cycle over a vast timescale of attraction, bounce with a spread out bang, springing apart, and expansion until attraction (gravity) takes over again.Such a shadow world, Hawking speculated, might contain "shadow human beings wondering about the mass that seems to be missing from their world." Are branes the key to understanding the origin of our universe? "Who knows?" says Sean Carroll. "they will have taught us a useful lesson that we should have known all along, which is that we don't have a clue to what's going on." Alan Guth of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, creator of the currently accepted model of the Big Bang, said recently "he felt a little like Rip Van Winkle -- picking up his head from a long sleep only to notice that the landscape of physics he thought he knew had suddenly, drastically, changed." Casey Kazan
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: abraxas (#0)
I find this explanation appealing. Big Bang always struck me as simplistic. And I find the multiverse impossible and ridiculous.
The truth is that it's turtles all the way down.
For it is not the wolf or any of the other beasts that would join the contest in any noble danger, but rather a good man. — Aristotle, Politics, Book IIX
I've never seen it that way. There could be many big bangs occurring throughout the universe, populated at intervals of hundreds of billions of light years apart, with the bubble we're in just being one of a great many. When a star goes nova, it's similar in concept to a big bang. But I'm always up for hearing the latest and bestest theories. This 10 dimension stuff I still don't get at all though.
The big bang theory is silly. Odin!!! and his brothers created the world out of the body of Ymir. WWGPD? - (What Would General Pinochet Do?)
Big Bang jives with singularity and conforms to the accepted age of the universe although I wouldn't consider it to be simplistic. I never agreed with the underlying assumptions that make the big bang theory plausible: that physical laws are universal. Dark matter and black holes don't fit, for example. Then there's that pesky question: if the big bang came from singularity, then where did singularity come from? Quantum physics doesn't get any play in the big bang theory, whereas the elegant string theory embraces the quantum perspective. Given the basic premise of quantum mechanics, what do you find impossible and ridiculous in the multiverse theories that have been presented?
"The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. ... We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of." Edward Bernays, Father of Public Relations
One of many flaws. We may eventually come to see that relativity and quantum physics and string theory are only applications of a subset of knowledge. There is obviously a larger and complete theoretical framework that can include all of them. This branes model is an example of what that might look like.
Actually the M or membrane or branes theory is quantum physics and sting theory on steroids. It's multiverse to infinity as indicated in the article: "And our membrane may be only one of many, all of which may warp, connect, and collide with one another in as many as 10 dimensions -a new frontier physicists call the "brane world." Stephen Hawking, among others, envisions brane worlds perculating up out of the void, giving rise to whole new universes." Two key concepts: The M-theory states that strings of energy could grow into larger membranes or branes even up to the size of the universe. Essentially, this theory has grown from an attempt to unify previously formulated string theories together, working on the notion of dualities, finding that each individual theory is special case that functions independently but differently within the membrane theory. Hence, M theory is actually a unified string theory. It states that these strings need to vibrate in more than three dimensions (six) plus another dimension – time. Hense, multidimentional and multiverse.
"The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. ... We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of." Edward Bernays, Father of Public Relations
The collapse of a previous universe.
Which would make the Big Bang just another notch along a larger String theory construct. :)
"The more artificial taboos and restrictions there are in the world, the more the people are impoverished.... The more that laws and regulations are given prominence, the more thieves and robbers there will be." - Lao Tzu, 6th century BC
Not exactly in my reading. Still, discussing these things in language and not math is inexact at best.
Space time is a is an intellectually created model - it is a "thought experiment" created by people - NOTHING more! These people are trying to make the universe conform to an mathematical model - there is something wrong with this -- the universe is not a simple entity that can be explained by a mathematical space/time model. There is nothing existing in the universe that can actually be label as "time." There is no actual "space time" - how can "does not exist" and "nothing" (time and space) explain the universe. Only a model that actually explains the workings of energy can possibly describe the universe. Currently, that model is "quantum mechanics." Sorry, but isn't this a bunch of overactive brains chasing intellectual model, built on intellectual, built on intellectual model? Where is the beef man? This "ten universe explanation" reminds me of Wall Street financial derivates.
Actually, I am more a fan of M-theory which takes String Theory to a whole new level.
Only a model that actually explains the workings of energy can possibly describe the universe. I considered time to a wave rippling outward, with us moving from one frame of space in time to the next frame of space in one direction. M-theory takes this to the next step in that time is constantly branching out in multiple directions, with us only taking one branch of time in the multi-verse. NASA did capture pictures of a star being eaten by a black holeand the photos captured the "temporal skipping" effect that was theorized years ago that black hole could do.
Please - what does this "wave rippling" consist of? Is it some form of energy?
Is it some form of energy? Think of time as the wave motion, not what the wave is carrying.
#2. To: TooConservative (#1)
#3. To: TooConservative (#1)
Big Bang always struck me as simplistic.
#4. To: abraxas (#0)
"There was no big bang!"
#5. To: TooConservative, pinguinite, Original_Intent, Farmfriend (#1)
Big Bang always struck me as simplistic. And I find the multiverse impossible and ridiculous.
#6. To: abraxas (#5)
Then there's that pesky question: if the big bang came from singularity, then where did singularity come from?
Quantum physics doesn't get any play in the big bang theory, whereas the elegant string theory embraces the quantum perspective.
#7. To: TooConservative (#6)
We may eventually come to see that relativity and quantum physics and string theory are only applications of a subset of knowledge. There is obviously a larger and complete theoretical framework that can include all of them. This branes model is an example of what that might look like.
#8. To: abraxas (#5)
Then there's that pesky question: if the big bang came from singularity, then where did singularity come from?
#9. To: PaulCJ (#8)
#10. To: abraxas (#7)
It's multiverse to infinity as indicated in the article:
#11. To: abraxas (#0)
(Edited)
#12. To: SonOfLiberty (#9)
Which would make the Big Bang just another notch along a larger String theory construct. :)
#13. To: your_neighbor (#11)
There is no actual "space time" - how can "does not exist" and "nothing" (time and space) explain the universe.
#14. To: PaulCJ (#13)
I considered time to a wave rippling outward
#15. To: your_neighbor (#14)
Please - what does this "wave rippling" consist of?
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest