What Was There Before the Universe Was Created?

[lslars31]

If thought a lot on this topic ever since I was a little kid. What was there before the universe was created? And if there was something, what created that? And where did that thing come from, and so on?

There must be some sort of never ending and never beginning chain.

Has anyone else thought about something like that? It makes my mind hurt to think about it.

 

[recon]

LOL! Of course, there are scientists working to discover just that. I guess, at least for the time being, the answer is pretty subjective. The creation of the universe is an emotive topic, so you'll be treading on unfirm ground here. I suppose that if you're posting here, you must be looking for a scientific explanation. In that case, you'll be interested in having a look at this month's issue of the Scientific American. There is an article about a theory of what happened before The Big Bang.

 

[Mike2]

The above referenced article is at:
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&colID=1&articleID=00042F0D-1A0E-1085-94F483414B7F0000

 

[jcsd]

I recogniize the name of the author of the article (though I didn't read it) isn't he the one who proposed a pre-big bang inflationary period by appealing to the stringy theories?

 

[meteor]

Yes, G. Veneziano whas the creator of the Pre-Big Bang scenario, and also it's possible to consider him like the iniciator of string theory with his "Veneziano amplitude"

Anyway, if you look in quantum gravity, the other great theory called LQG, it's assuming that the universe existed before Big Bang, that was contracting, and then , Big Bang and expansion. Give a look at this paper
http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0309478
"Quantum gravity and the Big Bang"
Keep in mind the equation of page 3, the effective Friedmann equation. It's the most important equation of Loop Quantum Cosmology

 

[EIRE2003]

I dreamt one time that god was performing an experiment and a huge explosion took place and created the universe thus god created the universe and life.

 

[meteor]

I dreamt one time that god was performing an experiment and a huge explosion took place and created the universe thus god created the universe and life.

Not very likely. What has been doing god the last 13.7 billion of years?

I want to talk about the Scientific American article. It says that prior to big bang the universe was expanding; was expanding after the big bang too,
"...But the rate of change of the expansion was opposite at the two instants: if it was decelerating after the bang, it was accelerating before. In short, the big bang may not have been the origin of the universe but simply a violent transition from acceleration to deceleration."
It seems to indicate that there's no inflation in the Pre-big bang scenario: given that inflation implies acceleration, no deceleration.
But hep-th/9910169 says that there's inflation in the pre-big bang scenario
http://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/9910169
"The graceful exit in pre-big bang string cosmology"
So i have to conclude that in the Pre-big bang scenario, inflation occurs prior to the Big Bang. This is a very surprising result

 

[kurious]

The universe doesn't have to have a beginning or end and the matter in it doesn't have to come from anywhere.We are conditioned by everyday experiences to see things having a beginning and end and when a mass appears in front of us we know it came from another location in space .But our local experiences may not be typical of the universe as a whole.

 

[Phobos]

What was there before the universe was created? And if there was something, what created that? And where did that thing come from, and so on?

There must be some sort of never ending and never beginning chain.

Has anyone else thought about something like that?

Seems to be the eternal question haunting Humanity. From science, we have Big Bang Theory which is an excellent & well-proven model for the unfolding of the universe AFTER the beginning...but it is silent on what the beginning came from. The closer back in time we look toward the beginning, the less clear things become (modern physics becomes more limited in describing that time). "Inflation Theory" is a modification to Big Bang theory which brings our understanding closer to the beginning.

Anything "before" might be inaccessible to us completely so we may never know. But String Theory seems to be an interesting & leading idea for the beginning. That Scientific American article mentioned above has a good explanation (although it seems overly slanted against Big Bang Theory...but maybe that's just my personal reading of it).

It makes my mind hurt to think about it.

Welcome to the club. But it's a good kind of pain.

 

[lslars31]

No, I didn't run away, I have been reading evey reply you people have made so far. Thanks for the replies people :D

 

[Nereid]

A (belated) welcome to Physics Forums, Islars31!