The Big Bang was a Big Bounce
The idea that the universe erupted with a Big
Bang explosion has been a big barrier in scientific attempts to understand the
origin of our expanding universe.
The idea that the universe erupted with a Big Bang explosion has been a big barrier in scientific attempts to understand the origin of our expanding universe, although the Big Bang long has been considered by physicists to be the best model. As described by Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity, the origin of the Big Bang is a mathematically nonsensical state — a “singularity” of zero volume that nevertheless contained infinite density and infinitely large energy.
Now, however, Martin Bojowald and other physicists at Penn State are exploring territory unknown even to Einstein — the time before the Big Bang — using a mathematical time machine called Loop Quantum Gravity. This theory, which combines Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity with equations of quantum physics that did not exist in Einstein’s day, is the first mathematical description to systematically establish the existence of the Big Bounce and to deduce properties of the earlier universe from which our own may have sprung. For scientists, the Big Bounce opens a crack in the barrier that was the Big Bang.
As a fan of the late Fred Hoyle, I have to chuckle over folks finally coming full circle - acquiring the mathematics to understand what he comprehended through physics and philosophy.
Posted: Thu - July 5, 2007 at 06:40 AM