Having read a number of books on cosmology and particle physics, I found my-self raking through 5 or 6 books or looking on the web as I tried to remember some tangible fact that had interested me. In the end, I decided to gather this info and post it under various headings as blogs on MySpace. With the introduction of LaTeX at Physics Forums, I decided to move a couple of them over here. Some are a year old, some are more recent. MySpace blogs
The Big Bang
Apparently, most cosmologists don't like the term 'the big bang' even though it's widely recognised as the term used to describe the beginning of the universe, most prefer the 'big stretch' or 'expansion' as apposed to the idea of an explosion.
The Fundamental Forces-
Force
Relative Strength
Interaction
Gravity
1 (g)
Objects of mass
Weak
10^25 g
Types of nuclear decay
Electromagnetic
10^36 g
Atomic/chemical structures, electromagnetic phenomena
Strong
10^38 g
Nucleus structure
From between zero and 10^-43 seconds (the Planck epoch) a bubble* of incredibly dense and hot energy appeared within a space approx. 10^20 smaller than the size of a proton (a planck length, 10^-33 cm). Within this bubble, the supersymmetry that maintained that the four fundamental forces (gravity, electromagnetic, weak & strong) all had the same strength and were unified into one single fundamental force (the superforce) collapsed. (What exists when supersymmetry is in place is unknown, future experiments with particle accelerators and the advancement of string theory and loop quantum gravity might shed some light on this state). Gravity began to separate from the other forces and at 10^-33 seconds, the strong force began to separate (the 2 remaining forces, electromagnetism and weak, were still bound as the electroweak force). The universe then began to inflate rapidly. One theory for the rapid cosmic inflation is that the separation of the fundamental forces created a sort of anti-gravity (or inflaton** field) that filled empty space with 'vacuum energy', pushing the fabric of space to expand without diluting itself in the process. This is like a dam breaking and the false vacuum- the dammed river- releasing a tremendous amount of force as it returned to its true vacuum state- sea level. The primordial universe expanded at faster than the speed of light; the pocket of space we call the observable universe today expanded to the size of a galaxy in less than a picosecond, and kept going. Quarks and antiquarks formed soon after. Electromagnetism and the weak force separated at the end of the electroweak epoch at 10^-12 seconds resulting in the four fundamental forces as they are today. At 1 microsecond, electrons and positrons formed, quarks combined to create protons and neutrons. 1 second after the big bang, protons and neutrons bind to create atomic nuclei.
*This bubble represents the area of the universe we see today and not the universe in total. A better description might be that the big bang was a series of infinite points of hot, dense energy that all expanded rapidly equal to the comoving distance of what can be seen today, meaning every point in space has a cosmic light horizon equal to that of the age of the universe, about 13.7 billion light years with a comoving distance of 46.5 billion light years, while the universe itself is infinite. Of course, these areas overlap and the CLH and CD are relative to the observer, someone placed at the edge of our cosmic light horizon would see a different aspect of the universe that we couldn't.
**This is not a spelling mistake, the inflaton field is the generic name for the unidentified scalar field that may be responsible for the rapid expansion around the 10^-33 second mark after the initial big bang.
The fact that our night sky is mostly black tells us that at some point in the universe's life there must have been a rapid expansion faster than the speed of light. There are approx. 100 billion stars in our galaxy and about the same amount of galaxies in the observable universe which means if the universe had always existed or it had been expanding at a steady rate less than the speed of light, then the light from all these stars would have reached our planet and our night would be as bright as day. The fact that the night sky is black tells us there was a very rapid expansion and that the age of the universe is not infinite as there is still light crawling its way across the universe towards us. Maybe within the next billion years or so, our night sky might start turning slightly grey as the light begins to reach us.
The Fundamental Forces-
Force
Relative Strength
Interaction
Gravity
1 (g)
Objects of mass
Weak
10^25 g
Types of nuclear decay
Electromagnetic
10^36 g
Atomic/chemical structures, electromagnetic phenomena
Strong
10^38 g
Nucleus structure
From between zero and 10^-43 seconds (the Planck epoch) a bubble* of incredibly dense and hot energy appeared within a space approx. 10^20 smaller than the size of a proton (a planck length, 10^-33 cm). Within this bubble, the supersymmetry that maintained that the four fundamental forces (gravity, electromagnetic, weak & strong) all had the same strength and were unified into one single fundamental force (the superforce) collapsed. (What exists when supersymmetry is in place is unknown, future experiments with particle accelerators and the advancement of string theory and loop quantum gravity might shed some light on this state). Gravity began to separate from the other forces and at 10^-33 seconds, the strong force began to separate (the 2 remaining forces, electromagnetism and weak, were still bound as the electroweak force). The universe then began to inflate rapidly. One theory for the rapid cosmic inflation is that the separation of the fundamental forces created a sort of anti-gravity (or inflaton** field) that filled empty space with 'vacuum energy', pushing the fabric of space to expand without diluting itself in the process. This is like a dam breaking and the false vacuum- the dammed river- releasing a tremendous amount of force as it returned to its true vacuum state- sea level. The primordial universe expanded at faster than the speed of light; the pocket of space we call the observable universe today expanded to the size of a galaxy in less than a picosecond, and kept going. Quarks and antiquarks formed soon after. Electromagnetism and the weak force separated at the end of the electroweak epoch at 10^-12 seconds resulting in the four fundamental forces as they are today. At 1 microsecond, electrons and positrons formed, quarks combined to create protons and neutrons. 1 second after the big bang, protons and neutrons bind to create atomic nuclei.
*This bubble represents the area of the universe we see today and not the universe in total. A better description might be that the big bang was a series of infinite points of hot, dense energy that all expanded rapidly equal to the comoving distance of what can be seen today, meaning every point in space has a cosmic light horizon equal to that of the age of the universe, about 13.7 billion light years with a comoving distance of 46.5 billion light years, while the universe itself is infinite. Of course, these areas overlap and the CLH and CD are relative to the observer, someone placed at the edge of our cosmic light horizon would see a different aspect of the universe that we couldn't.
**This is not a spelling mistake, the inflaton field is the generic name for the unidentified scalar field that may be responsible for the rapid expansion around the 10^-33 second mark after the initial big bang.
The fact that our night sky is mostly black tells us that at some point in the universe's life there must have been a rapid expansion faster than the speed of light. There are approx. 100 billion stars in our galaxy and about the same amount of galaxies in the observable universe which means if the universe had always existed or it had been expanding at a steady rate less than the speed of light, then the light from all these stars would have reached our planet and our night would be as bright as day. The fact that the night sky is black tells us there was a very rapid expansion and that the age of the universe is not infinite as there is still light crawling its way across the universe towards us. Maybe within the next billion years or so, our night sky might start turning slightly grey as the light begins to reach us.
Total Comments 1
Comments
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The idea of a Big Bang presumes that the laws of nature were the same in the past as they are today. Isn't that kind of a large premise? We just assume that without any real proof. I think there is reasonable doubt that the laws stay the same since everything else changes as existence unfolds. Why not a universe containing a near infinite number of tiny particles that suddenly start behaving like photons, start combining to make atoms, then molecules, etc. Where something below the nature of all particles drives the way they interact and causes the physical laws.
Seems like that is more plausible than a 'singularity' and a sudden explosion.
So much of what we believe is based upon 99% pure conjecture that I'm always in awe of anyone that thinks they truly understand a single thing.
To assume that the blackness of night is caused by a prior motion faster than light is one explanation. Another is that ancient photons didn't act like current day photons. Just this simple possibility is enough to cast doubt on a lot of standard theory and current physics 'knowledge'.
As long as you realize you are assuming nature has never changed, there must be some doubt on your conclusions.Posted Nov29-08 at 05:33 PM by Stevening 
