Theories and the begining of universe

[navneet1990]

could anyone tell me about the various theories about the universe and the most accepted ones
i want to know just kinda like a summary of it
so that when i go for this interview and they ask me to talk about these diff theories i can give them a jist of it/them

Thank you

 

[Chris Hillman]

Oh, do tell! What interview is this in which you expect to be quizzed on cosmology?

 

[complexPHILOSOPHY]

A popular theory among scientists is that a flying speghetti monster flew in between alternate universes and generated what is known as 'the big bang' which thusly inflated and expanded into our universe. Don't forgot to mention the uncompactified manifold.

 

[navneet1990]

well it aint actually about cosmology

its some interview for government scholarship for those who want to take up research as a career. so i got short listed for the interview.
and they gave this self appraisal letter in which we had to write about the what fields we are interested in and what activities we are undertaking other than our school stuff
so i wrote about cosmology and all
and i said that I am studying about how the universe was created and origin of life and all
thats why i wanted to know
cause i feel they'll ask about these topics since I've mentioned it

 

[marcus]

here is one possible tactic

a very eminent world authority on new theories of cosmology is
Abhay Ashtekar. He grew up in the Bombay area, if I remember correctly.

He leads a research institute at Penn State and he has a website with links to popular articles as well as technical articles.
In my personal opinion, his work is considerably more interesting and important than anything Stephen Hawking has done since, say, 1980. Hawking gets celebrity and media attention, but Ashtekar and his research team actually make progress.

One strategy would be
1. visit Ashtekar website
2. read the easy parts of a recent Ashtekar article called
"The Issue of the Beginning in Quantum Gravity"
3. tell the committee that Ashtekar is a hero of yours and you are interested in his research into the origins of the big bang.

Ashtekar was not a complete intellectual when he was a teen ager. He liked sports and played a lot of soccer. You say you are 16 years old and your interests are "...singing, playing baseketball,cricket,etc. reading and writing and science,eating,sleeping,thinking." That sounds similar to Ashtekar as a young man. He didnt start out having his nose in a book all the time.
But by age 40 he was among a handful of top people in quantum cosmology.
Now he is in his 50s I estimate, or early 60s.

He seriously considers that quantum mechanics allows that the big bang could actually have been a "bounce", where a prior gravitational collapse achieved very high density and pressure and turned around into an expansion.
His group has been computer-modeling this and attempting to get predictions that can be tested by observation of the CMB (cosmic microwave background).

anyway that is one idea for you. I will get some links. so you can have a look if you want.
http://phys.psu.edu/
http://www.phys.psu.edu/people/display/index.html?person_id=169
http://cgpg.gravity.psu.edu/people/Ashtekar/

His CV (curriculum vitae, life history) says he got his Bachelors degree at U. Bombay in 1969, so he might have been born around 1948----my guess could be right, that he is late 50s.
http://cgpg.gravity.psu.edu/people/Ashtekar/cv.html

He has made a collection of what he calls SEMI-POPULAR ARTICLES here
http://cgpg.gravity.psu.edu/people/Ashtekar/articles.html

these are links to articles that are freely available online and which explain things about quantum gravity and cosmology WITHOUT USING TOO MUCH MATHEMATICS. they are accessible to non-specialists.

Ashtekar's approach must still be verified by observationally testing predictions----all theories must be. I think it has a good chance of being right, but you have to decide that for yourself. At least it is consistent with the astronomical observations made so far (because so far it agrees with the classical model, General Relativity).

the article I mentioned "The Issue of the Beginning" is partly technical and partly non-technical. I don't know how much you can actually get out of it but i will give a link. I think it is a serious, thought-provoking, scholarly article but it might be just a little too hard to read for you. Go here
http://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0605078
and click on PDF to download the full 15 page paper.
the full title is "The Issue of the Beginning in Quantum Gravity"

 

[navneet1990]

hey thanks a lot
ill surely get into these sites and try and understand something
thanks again

P.S. i live in bombay