LF: Did the Big Bang ever happen? Quantum model predicts universe has NO beginning

Title: Did the Big Bang ever happen? Quantum model predicts universe has NO beginning - and it could even explain dark energy
Source: Daily Mail Online
URL Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet ... predicts-universe-NO-beginning
Published: Feb 11, 2015
Author: Ellie Zolfagharifard
Post Date: 2015-02-11 08:27:19 by cranky
Keywords: None
Views: 2962
Comments: 8

Our universe, according to Einstein's theories, is around 13.8 billion years old and formed from an infinitely small point during the Big Bang.

While most people accept this model, scientists still can't explain what happened inside this tiny point - called a singularity – or what came before it.

Now, two physicists have put forward a radical new model which suggests the Big Bang didn't take place - and that our universe has no beginning and no end.

Our universe, according to Einstein's theories, is around 13.8 billion years old and formed from an infinitely small point during the Big Bang (illustration pictured) While most people accept this model, scientists still can't explain what happened inside this tiny point - called a singularity – or what came before it

'The math and the Big Bang theory itself break down because of the infinities,' Professor Saurya Das at University of Lethbridge, Canada told Dailymail.com.

'In other words, the theory predicts its own demise. It also does not explain where that initial state, came from.'

To help solve this problem, the scientists combined general relativity, which describes the forces around us, with quantum mechanics, which governs small objects.

They began with equations created by physicist David Bohm, who in the 1950s attempted to use quantum theory in place of classical equation to describe the shortest path between two points on a curved surface.

The scientists began with equations created by physicist David Bohm (left), who in the 1950s attempted to use quantum theory in place of classical equations. They then combined this with an equation by Professor Amal Kumar Raychaudhuri at Presidency University (right)

They then combined this with an equation by Professor Amal Kumar Raychaudhuri at Presidency University, in Kolkata, which described a fluid of small particles that pervades space.

This fluid is the quantum version of gravity, which has dubbed a graviton by Professor Das and co-author Ahmed Farag Ali at Benha University.

They showed that unlike classical trajectories - which are paths of particles going into the future or past – the quantum particles can never meet or cross.

'As far as we can see, since different points in the universe never actually converged in the past, it did not have a beginning,' said Professor Das.

'It lasted forever. It will also not have an end…In other words, there is no singularity.'

The theory may also potentially explain the origin of dark matter and dark energy.

'As far as we can see, since different points in the universe never actually converged in the past, it did not have a beginning,' said Professor Das. Pictured is a star cluster that popular cosmology believes formed following the Big Bang. The current research suggests stars such as this always existed

These elusive substances constitute respectively about 25 per cent and 70 per cent of our universe.

'We showed that a giant Bose-Einstein condensate of gravitons may have formed very early on, have lasted forever, and which accounts for both dark matter and dark energy,' said Professor Das.

In the late 1990s, astronomers found that the expansion of the universe is accelerating due the presence of a dark energy.

Their model has the potential to explain it since the fluid creates constant outward force that expands space.

And when the team set the mass of the graviton, they could make the density of their fluid the same as the universe's observed density of dark matter.

'It is satisfying to note that such straightforward corrections can potentially resolve so many issues at once.' Professor Das said.