I believe she was always there awaiting the big bang
Posted on 08/04/2006 4:26:21 AM PDT by PatrickHenry
The question of what happened before the Big Bang long has frustrated cosmologists, both amateur and professional.
Though Einstein's theory of general relativity does an excellent job of describing the universe almost back to its beginning, near the Big Bang matter becomes so dense that relativity breaks down, says Penn State physicist Abhay Ashtekar. "Beyond that point, we need to apply quantum tools that were not available to Einstein."
Now Ashtekar and two of his post-doctoral researchers, Tomasz Pawlowski and Parmpreet Singh, have done just that. Using a theory called loop quantum gravity, they have developed a mathematical model that skates right up to the Big Bang -- and steps through it. On the other side, Ashtekar says, exists another universe with space-time geometry similar to our own, except that instead of expanding, it is shrinking. "In place of a classical Big Bang, there is in fact a quantum Bounce," he says.
Loop quantum gravity, one of the leading approaches to the unification of general relativity with quantum physics, was pioneered at the Institute of Gravitational Physics and Geometry at Penn State, which Ashtekar directs. The theory posits that space-time geometry itself has a discrete "atomic" structure, Ashtekar explains. Instead of the familiar space-time continuum, the fabric of space is made up of one-dimensional quantum threads. Near the Big Bang, this fabric is violently torn, and these quantum properties cause gravity to become repulsive, rather than attractive.
While the idea of another universe existing prior to the Big Bang has been proposed before, he adds, this is the first mathematical description that systematically establishes its existence and deduces its space-time geometry.
"Our initial work assumes a homogenous model of our universe," Ashtekar acknowledges. "However, it has given us confidence in the underlying ideas of loop quantum gravity. We will continue to refine the model to better portray the universe as we know it and to better understand the features of quantum gravity."
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Abhay Ashtekar is holder of the Eberly family chair in physics and director of the Institute for Gravitational Physics and Geometry in the Eberly College of Science. He can be reached at ava1@psu.edu.
The finding reported above was published in Physical Review Letters in May 2006. The research was sponsored by the National Science Foundation, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, and the Penn State Eberly College of Science.
So very clever! Did you come up with that line yourself?
The Book of Nothing: Vacuums, Voids, and the Latest Ideas about the Origins of the Universe explains it all, using quantum mechanics. It's a funny book, too, with lots of puns related to nothing (see what I mean).
There was no "before" the Big Bang in the classic sense. Time is a function of matter in the universe. Take that away and you deal with the timeless qualities of Consciousness, Being, Mind... God.
I don't agree. If the Big Bang was something from the inside of the singularity outward then it existed within the singularity.
If it was simply the outside of the singularity opening up and allowing the contents to rush into nothingness then the outside of the singularity existed though it was maintaining time within itself. The inner surface of the outside of the singularity existed where time was contained. Therefore, it existed no matter if time was within the singularity or outside of it.
And God said, "Let there be light"............
Replies are a kind of Rorshach test of 'what is your mood right now' based on who were you talking to just before you responded to a post: your wife, your mistress, your neighbor, or your dog.
We found some audio tape. Here is a rough transcript:
"Whew! It took 10,000,000,000,000,000 years, but we finally got that big, bad evil parallel universe re-packed into this tiny harmless little particle. Here, help me carry it. And for God's sake, this time DON'T DROP IT!!"
I believe the posts in question are merely placing an identification sign in a thread to signify that it has been seen and marked. My dog told me to say this.
I typically post during lulls or breaks at work while experiments are running or instruments are stabilizing. Right now I have a beam splitter that is giving me a headache in an inhereted interferrometer.
I believe she was always there awaiting the big bang
If there was a Supreme Being involved...damn right I would.
Aside from that, my remark was laced with a generous dose of sarcasm and not meant as serious reply to the initial question.
Which is why most folks here ignore my posts...because no matter how well equipped I may be to answer all the big questions of the universe, I am, above all...a smartass.
The answer is 42
I don't ignore your posts. I just don't read them.
LOL!
Actually, I heard that Gabriel was overheard saying, "I said a Bud Light!"
Unless, at the instant of the big bang, it wasn't a singularity, but an infinitely dense universe. The initial inflation supplied the space for density to drop. There may never have been a boundary that would mark the edge of the universe. Or, if space itself came into existence at the initiation of the big bang, again, there could be no limit because there was non space in which to have a limit.
Thanks for that. I feel sooo much better now.
Actually, the sum of matter and energy in the universe is zero.
It's just a big kited check.
The "Big Bang" was the result of the previous universe collapsing in on itself. i.e., it's cyclic.
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