Echoes from Before the Big Bang May Be Inaudible

Scientific American ^ | July 1, 2007 | JR Minkel

[SunkenCiv]

Physicist Donald Marolf of the University of California, Santa Barbara, says the finding would be strengthened if it turned up in other models of quantum gravity, such as string theory. "No one has good control over this physics in any approach to quantum gravity," he says, "and it is important to explore a broad range of models and ideas."

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Big Bounce: According to a new theory, we may never be able to fully reconstruct the state of the universe before the big bang [left] because quantum fluctuations (orange) become smeared out after the big bang [right]. Details of what the universe was like before the big bang may be forever lost to us, according to a new analysis. Einstein's theory of gravity, general relativity, describes the evolution of the cosmos but breaks down at the moment of the big bang, preventing researchers from understanding its origins. To glimpse behind the veil, a researcher has applied a speculative theory that treats the universe as pixilated into tiny atom-like units of space and time. His findings suggest that experiments would never be sensitive enough to fully reconstruct the state of the universe before the bang. Image: Martin Bojowald

[SunkenCiv]

[LiteKeeper]

YEC INTREP

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http://www.metaresearch.org/cosmology/cosmology.asp

[gcruse]

Well, don’t ask me. I was a baby at the time.

[SunkenCiv]

Even so, your ears are probably still ringin’ from that Big Bang.

[gcruse]

They call it tinnitus and up until the fourth grade, I thought everybody’s ears rang.