Question on recreating the Big Bang

[Schreiberdk]

Hi there PF

I know this is rather unorthodox, but I have been watching the science-fiction series Eureka for a while now, and in the latest episode I have seen, there was a device, that would recreate the Big Bang itself. The episode I am speaking of is episode 8 in season 2 (link to episode: http://www.watch-eureka-online.com/Watch_Eureka_Online_Season_2_Episode_8_E_mc.html)

Now this device, as it appears in the show, does not in any ways look like a particle accelerator. Rather it looks like a floating energy container, which get charged up by some sort of laser beam. After 24 hours of charging up, the energy container then explodes like the Big Bang itself.

Now my question is, would it be possible to create such an experiment, without a particle accelerator. I know this is comming from science-fiction, but I am just curious and wanted to explore the possibility with the oppinion of experts to back the idea up (or smash it to the ground ;-) ).

\Schreiber

[Drakkith]

It is not possible to recreate the events of the big bang ever. With anything.
We can simulate the conditions of space in the moments after the big bang, but the further back you go the more energy is needed. You could never reach the starting point.

[Schreiberdk]

Good point. In the episode it was not mentioned if the experiment recreated the Big Bang or just conditions near the Big Bang.

My question would then be: Is it possible to recreate conditions near the Big Bang without a particle accelerator? Perhaps in the way it is being done in the episode, by charging up an energi container, with so much energy, that it could give birth to conditions near the Big Bang?

[Drakkith]

This represents a misunderstanding of energy that is perpetuated by popular media. There is no such thing as "pure energy". Energy is the ability for a system to perform work on another system. If a particle strikes another particle, it is said that it contained Kinetic Energy that was transferred into the other particle upon collision. The more the 1st particle affects the 2nd particle, the more kinetic energy it is said to have. For light energy is in the form of momentum. The more momentum the photon contains, the higher its frequency is. A gamma ray striking an electron will cause a far greater disturbance than would an infrared photon striking that electron.

So the question becomes, what is being stored in the container? Energy in the form of what? I can see if they somehow were able to emit an enormous amount of EM radiation all at once at the energies and densities of right after the big bang, but actual particles themselves would require accelerators. Our current greaterst one, the Large Hadron Collider, is 27 kilometers long and accelerates protons to a speed greater than 99% the speed of light. To get beyond that you would need something similar in size and greater in power. It would not be just a box.

[Schreiberdk]

What about if you did something similar to what they do at NIF (National Ignition Facility), where a pellet of hydrogen is being heated by laser beams. Could a material be heated to temperatures near the Big Bang (10^19 GeV)? Which would reproduce near Big Bang conditions? The only problem with this design is the energy source for the lasers and a large enough laser system. Right now they can reach 8.6 KeV, but would it in theory be possible to recreate the near Big Bang conditions this way?

[Drakkith]

I suppose that is possible. I'm not sure how the matter would react at EM radiation powerful enough to cause it to reach 10^19 GeV. I wonder what density the compression of a non-negligable amount of matter at that temperature would create...

[Schreiberdk]

A singularity? :) Like near the Big Bang :)

[Drakkith]

Lol, lets hope not.