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Sitaram · Site Admin Joined: 14 Sep 2005 Posts: 1079

Date: Tue May 13, 2003 9:16 pm
Subject: What Happened Before the Big Bang?

http://www.sulekha.com/chpost.asp...ilosophy&show=0&cid=59011

http://www.flash.net/~csmith0/bigbang.htm

WHAT HAPPENED BEFORE THE BIG BANG?
Dr. Michio Kaku is Prof. of theoretical physics at the City Univ. of
New York and author of Hyperspace: a Scientific Odyssey through the
10th Dimension (Oxford Univ. Press).

Einstein's theory of gravity, which gives us the Big Bang theory and
black holes, was subjected to the most stringent test yet and passed
with flying colors. In the latest (Oct.) issue of Physics Today,
astronomers from Harvard, MIT, and the Haystack Observatory proudly
announced that they had confirmed Einstein's theory to within an
astonishing .04% accuracy by measuring the bending of radio waves
from the quasar 3C279 near the edge of the visible universe.

But there is some irony in this announcement. Each success only
highlights a yawning gap. Even as scientists hail ever more accurate
tests of Einstein's theory of warped space, Einstein himself knew
that his theory broke down at the instant of the Big Bang. The theory
had feet of clay.
Relativity was worthless, he realized, when it came to answering the
most embarrassing cosmic question in all of science: What happened
before the Big Bang? Ask any cosmologist this question, and they will
throw up their hands, roll their eyes, and lament, "This may be
forever beyond the reach of science. We just don't know."
Until now, that is.

A remarkable consensus has been developing recently around what is
called "quantum cosmology," where scientists believe that a merger of
the quantum theory and Einstein's relativity may resolve these sticky
theological questions. Theoretical physicists are rushing in where
the angels fear to tread!
In particular, an appealing but starting new picture is emerging in
quantum cosmology which may be able to synthesize some of the great
mythologies of creation.

There are two dominant religious mythologies. According to Judeo-
Christian belief, the universe had a definite beginning. This is the
Genesis hypothesis, where the universe was hatched from a Cosmic Egg.
However, according to the Hindu-Buddhist belief in Nirvana, the
universe is timeless; it never had a beginning, nor will it have an
end.

Quantum cosmology proposes a beautiful synthesis of these seemingly
hostile viewpoints. In the beginning was Nothing. No space, no matter
or energy. But according to the quantum principle, even Nothing was
unstable. Nothing began to decay; i.e. it began to "boil," with
billions of tiny bubbles forming and expanding rapidly. Each bubble
became an expanding universe.

If this is true, then our universe is actually part of a much
larger "multiverse" of parallel universes, which is truly timeless,
like Nirvana.

As Nobel laureate Steve Weinberg has said, "An important implication
is that there wasn't a beginning; that there were increasingly large
Big Bangs, so that the [multiverse] goes on forever - one doesn't
have to grapple with the question of it before the Bang. The
[multiverse] has just been here all along. I find that a very
satisfying picture."

Universes can literally spring into existence as a quantum
fluctuation of Nothing. (This is because the positive energy found in
matter is balanced against the negative energy of gravity, so the
total energy of a bubble is zero. Thus, it takes no net energy to
create a new universe.)

As Alan Guth, originator of the inflationary theory, once said, "It's
often said there is no such thing as a free lunch. But the universe
itself may be a free lunch."

Andre Linde of Stanford has said, "If my colleagues and I are right,
we may soon be saying good-bye to the idea that our universe was a
single fireball created in the Big Bang."

Although this picture is appealing, it also raises more questions.
Can life exist on these parallel universes? Stephen Hawking is
doubtful; he believes that our universe may co-exist with other
universes, but our universe is special. The probability of forming
these other bubbles is vanishingly small.

On the other hand, Weinberg believes
most of these parallel universes are probably dead. To have stable
DNA molecules, the proton must be stable for at least 3 billion
years. In these dead universes, the protons might have decayed into a
sea of electrons and neutrinos.

Our universe may be one of the few compatible with life. This would,
in fact, answer the age-old question of why the physical constants of
the universe fall in a narrow band compatible with the formation of
life. If the charge of the electron, the gravitational constant, etc.
were changed slightly, then life would have been impossible. This is
called the Anthropic Principle. As Freeman Dyson of Princeton
said, "It's as if the universe knew we were coming." The strong
version of this states that this proves the existence of God or an
all-powerful deity.

But according to quantum cosmology, perhaps there are millions of
dead universes. It was an accident, therefore, that our universe had
conditions compatible with the formation of stable DNA molecules.
This leaves open the possibility, however, that there are parallel
universes out there which are almost identical to ours, except for
some fateful incident. Perhaps King George III did not lose the
Colonies in one such universe.

However, I can calculate the probability that one day you might be
walking down the street, only to fall into hole in space and enter a
parallel universe. You would have to wait longer than the lifetime of
the universe for such a cosmic event to happen. So I guess the United
States is safe for the present!

As J.B.S. Haldane once said, "the universe is not only queerer than
we suppose, it is queerer than we can suppose."

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