The Big Bang Theory Revisited

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Most of us are quite familiar with the hit show The Big Bang Theory featuring the lives and trials of Mensa level college geeks. A catchy tune by the Bare Naked Ladies lends a nice touch to the initial credits as well as highlights what we’ve all considered to be canon as far as how the universe may have come to be, i.e. The Big Bang. We know and have accepted it to be about 13.7 billion years of age.

This theory may now be shaken down at its basest level and we may have to revisit a few corollary theories. A new idea and theory that applies quantum correction terms to Einstein’s theory of general relativity posits that the universe may have existed forever and indefinitely in either direction of time. Maybe Doctor Who writers were on to something with the whole ‘wibbly wobbly timey wimey’ thing after all.

Ahmed Farag Ali of Benha University and Zewali City of Science and Technology (Egypt) and Saurya Das of the University of Lethbridge (Canada) published a paper in Physics Letters B that postulates even though the Big Bang Theory is directly derived from the mathematics of Einstein’s general relativity, it can only explain what happened after, not before, the actual singularity (the single, infinitely dense point that was supposed to have contained the entire universe before it exploded out). The ideas of Ali and Das are based on an equation developed by two other scientists from the 1950s, Bohm (a theoretical physicist akin to Sheldon in The Big Bang show) and Raychaudhuri (Das’ undergraduate mentor).

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Using the quantum-corrected Raychaudhuri equation, Ali and Das derived quantum-corrected Friedmann equations, which describe the expansion and evolution of the universe (including the Big Bang) within the context of general relativity. Although it’s not a true theory of quantum gravity, the model does contain elements from both quantum theory and general relativity. Ali and Das also expect their results to hold even if and when a full theory of quantum gravity is formulated. (Ali/Das)

The new theory also talks about there not being an ‘end of time’ scenario either, which the theory of relativity calls a ‘big crunch’ singularity. The new model will avoid singularities because all trajectories involved will not cross each other, hence not appearing in the new equations. A new gravity particle may also evolve out of this, called gravitons – hypothetical massless particles that mediate the force of gravity. These gravitons (according to another paper by Das) can form what’s called a Bose-Einstein condensate (named after Satyendranath Bose and Albert Einstein) at ubiquitous temperatures throughout the history of the universe.

Future studies stemming from this new theory will attempt to resolve many unanswered questions arising from the Big Bang singularity to account for dark matter and dark energy, including minor anomalies.

[button link=”http://phys.org/news/2015-02-big-quantum-equation-universe.html” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: Phys.Org[/button]
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