What were the initial ingredients of the BB

[Tanelorn]

I have read the time line several times for the BB:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_Big_Bang

And I am unclear what were the initial ingredients at or before the 10-43 seconds. All I can get from this is high temperature which means high energy or high vibrational energy in matter.
Were there any forms of matter at this stage? e.g. free quarks, leptons and bosons?

So all I can see for the initial ingredients are:

1. Inflation which seems to greatly increase the size of the Universe. Is it correct to say it created spacetime?

2. Energy. I am not sure what this form of energy is eg. vibrational or radiation?

3. Elementary particles? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elementary_particle

 

[Drakkith]

To quote wiki:

The earliest instant of the Big Bang expansion is still an area of open investigation. The Big Bang theory does not provide any explanation for the initial conditions of the universe; rather, it describes and explains the general evolution of the universe going forward from that point on.

As for your specific points:

1. No, inflation just made the universe expand very very very rapidly. It did not create spacetime.

2. Energy probably existed in the form of VERY high energy EM radiation and VERY high kinetic energy of elementary particles.

3. If we assume that SOMETHING existed at that point in time, then I'd guess that it would be elementary particles. But given the extreme energy they may be particles that we've never seen before or they may behave in very different ways than we observe today.

 

[Chronos]

We have nothing but guesses about what the universe was like before Planck time. It may have been pure energy with mass possessing particles emerging later - possibly condensing during the inflationary epoch.

 

[Drakkith]

We have nothing but guesses about what the universe was like before Planck time. It may have been pure energy with mass possessing particles emerging later - possibly condensing during the inflationary epoch.

And what is "pure energy"?

 

[Tanelorn]

Yes that is the essence of my question, what is the speculated form of this energy before 10-43 secs? Perhaps High kinetic energy of elementary particles and radiation or is that later on?

 

[Chronos]

The only suspect is the inflaton at this point.

 

[gringopistoler]

Perhaps what constituted a pre-planck time universe is similar to an einstein-Bose condensate (in reverse) and was composed of one single high energy string that "broke" up with the expansion/inflation to create the first photons and quarks?
It will be interesting to see in the future how such high energy and pressure affect matter.

 

[Tanelorn]

gp, An interesting idea. I have also wondered if the BB being could be as a result of something similar to nuclear decay. ie something that was one thing becoming many much smaller things.