William Atkins
Monday, 10 August 2009 18:54
Science -
Energy
Page 5 of 9
At first sight, the conclusion that the two widely different pictures are both true appears counterintuitive. And, to be sure, in the classical world of physics, the two pictures would be irreconcilable.
However, in our quantum-physics world, they do not conflict with each other.
The Beginning of the Universe In fact, a detailed computer simulation of the Universe (with its source code listed on the website) shows that, if both pictures are assumed to be valid, it becomes possible to calculate many quantities previously thought to be determined only by chance. Thus, the theoretical cosmology of the Big Bang turns into a model of Predictive Cosmology.
The pattern that emerges differs radically from present descriptions of the Big Bang. It shows that, at the beginning of time, the Universe popped up, not as an infinitely small and dense point (what physicists call a “singularity”), but as a single-particle four-dimensional (4D) spacetime bubble with extended space and time dimensions (that is, with a nonzero initial radius and a nonzero initial age).
The initial age of the Universe defines the natural time scale via which age and time is measured. Thus, taking the bubble to have unit dimensions initially means that the Universe was born at the age of t = 1 time unit. (This may be compared to measuring a person's age, not in years, but in units of nine months—the “age” of a baby when it is born.) The computer simulation of the early Universe shows that this “natural time unit” corresponds to about 10
−19 seconds.
At this point, one may pause to philosophize a little about the beginning of the Universe.
Since the Universe exists, and since astronomical observations indicate that it had a definite beginning, the probability for a symmetry-breaking transition from the perfectly symmetric state of literally nothing to a less symmetric single-particle (and consequently material) Universe cannot be exactly zero.
Consequently, a transition must occur. Since not even space nor time can exist in literally nothing, the spontaneous symmetry breaking must occur at the beginning of time (at t = 1 time unit if the newborn Universe is taken to have unit spacetime dimensions).
[In still simpler terms, the birth of the Universe is discussed in “A Fairy Tale,” which may be reached by clicking on “they solve the mystery” in the
website’s first paragraph or accessed directly via
http://www.physicsideas.com/Fairytale.pdf.]
Page 6 continues with the evolution of this new Universe.
