As long as there is humanity, so much and it tries to understand the structure of the universe. Yes, many say that this is "useless fuss", we do not really know anything, and we will not learn anything in the coming generations, and maybe even until the end of human civilization. Well, maybe they are right, but let's speculate …
The Big Bang theory has become almost as much a generally accepted cosmological model as the rotation of the Earth around the Sun. According to the theory, about 14 billion years ago, spontaneous oscillations in absolute emptiness led to the emergence of the universe. Something the size of a subatomic particle expanded to unimaginable sizes in a split second. But in this theory there are many problems over which physicists are fighting, putting forward more and more new hypotheses.
So what's wrong with the Big Bang theory?
What's wrong with the big bang theory
1. FROM THEORY it follows that all the planets and stars were formed from dust scattered across space as a result of an explosion. But what preceded it is unclear: here our mathematical model of space-time stops working. The universe arose from an initial singular state to which modern physics cannot be applied. The theory also does not consider the causes of the singularity or matter and energy for its occurrence. It is believed that the answer to the question of the existence and origin of the initial singularity will be given by the theory of quantum gravity.
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2. MOST COSMOLOGICAL MODELS PRESENT that the entire universe is much larger than the observable portion - a spherical region with a diameter of about 90 billion light years. We see only that part of the Universe, the light from which managed to reach the Earth in 13.8 billion years. But telescopes are getting better, we are detecting more and more distant objects, and so far there is no reason to believe that this process will stop.
3. FROM THE MOMENT OF THE BIG EXPLOSION THE UNIVERSE EXPANDS WITH ACCELERATION. The most difficult mystery of modern physics is the question of what causes acceleration. According to a working hypothesis, the universe contains an invisible component called "dark energy." The Big Bang theory does not explain whether the universe will expand indefinitely, and if so, what it will lead to - to its disappearance or something else.
4. ALTHOUGH NEWTON'S MECHANICS OUTSTANDED BY RELATIVIST PHYSICS, it cannot be called erroneous. However, the perception of the world and the models for describing the universe have completely changed. The Big Bang Theory predicted a number of things that were not known before. Thus, if another theory comes in its place, then it should be similar and expand the understanding of the world.
We will focus on the most interesting theories describing alternative Big Bang models.
The universe is like a mirage of a black hole
The universe originated from the collapse of a star in a four-dimensional universe, say scientists from the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. The results of their research were published in Scientific American. Nyayesh Afshordi, Robert Mann and Razi Purhasan say that our three-dimensional universe became a kind of "holographic mirage" when a four-dimensional star collapsed. In contrast to the Big Bang theory, according to which the universe arose from extremely hot and dense space-time, where standard laws of physics do not apply, the new hypothesis of a four-dimensional universe explains both the reasons for its origin and its rapid expansion
According to the scenario formulated by Afshordi and his colleagues, our three-dimensional universe is a kind of membrane that floats through an even more voluminous universe that already exists in four dimensions. If four-dimensional stars of their own existed in this four-dimensional space, they would also explode, just like three-dimensional ones in our Universe. The inner layer would become a black hole, and the outer layer would be thrown into space.
In our universe, black holes are surrounded by a sphere called the event horizon. And if in three-dimensional space this border is two-dimensional (like a membrane), then in the four-dimensional universe the event horizon will be limited by a sphere that exists in three dimensions. Computer simulations of the collapse of a four-dimensional star have shown that its three-dimensional event horizon will gradually expand. This is what we observe, calling the growth of the 3D membrane the expansion of the Universe, astrophysicists believe.
Big freeze
An alternative to the Big Bang could be the Big Freeze. A team of physicists from the University of Melbourne, led by James Kvatch, presented a model of the birth of the Universe, which looks more like a gradual process of freezing amorphous energy than its splash and expansion in three directions of space.
Formless energy, according to scientists, like water, cooled to crystallization, creating the usual three spatial and one time dimensions.
The Big Freeze Theory casts doubt on Albert Einstein's currently accepted statement about the continuity and smoothness of space and time. It is possible that space has its constituent parts - indivisible building blocks like tiny atoms or pixels in computer graphics. These blocks are so small that they cannot be observed, however, following the new theory, defects can be detected that should refract the flows of other particles. Scientists have calculated such effects using a mathematical apparatus, and now they will try to detect them experimentally.
A universe without beginning or end
Ahmed Farag Ali of Benha University in Egypt and Sauria Das of Lethbridge University in Canada have proposed a new solution to the singularity problem by abandoning the Big Bang. They introduced the ideas of the famous physicist David Bohm into the Friedman equation describing the expansion of the universe and the Big Bang. “It's amazing that small amendments can potentially solve so many issues,” says Das.
The resulting model combined general relativity and quantum theory. It not only denies the singularity that preceded the Big Bang, but also does not allow the universe to contract back to its original state over time. According to the data obtained, the universe has a finite size and an infinite lifetime. In physical terms, the model describes the Universe filled with a hypothetical quantum fluid, which consists of gravitons - particles that provide gravitational interaction.
The scientists also claim that their findings are consistent with the latest measurements of the density of the universe.
Endless chaotic inflation
The term "inflation" refers to the rapid expansion of the universe, which occurred exponentially in the first moments after the Big Bang. By itself, the theory of inflation does not refute the theory of the Big Bang, but only interprets it differently. This theory solves several fundamental problems in physics.
According to the inflationary model, shortly after its inception, the Universe expanded exponentially for a very short time: its size doubled many times. Scientists believe that in 10 to -36 degrees of seconds, the Universe has increased in size by at least 10 to 30-50 degrees, and possibly more. At the end of the inflationary phase, the Universe was filled with a superhot plasma of free quarks, gluons, leptons, and high-energy quanta.
The concept implies that there are many isolated universes in the world with different devices.
Physicists have come to the conclusion that the logic of the inflationary model does not contradict the idea of the constant multiple birth of new universes. Quantum fluctuations - the same as those that gave rise to our world - can occur in any quantity, provided the conditions are right. It is quite possible that our universe emerged from the fluctuation zone formed in the predecessor world. It can also be assumed that sometime and somewhere in our Universe a fluctuation will form, which will “blow out” a young universe of a completely different kind. In this model, the child universes can continually bud off. Moreover, it is not at all necessary that the same physical laws are established in the new worlds. The concept implies that there are many isolated universes in the world with different devices.
Cyclic theory
Paul Steinhardt, one of the physicists who laid the foundations of inflationary cosmology, decided to develop this theory further. The scientist who heads the Center for Theoretical Physics in Princeton, together with Neil Turok of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, laid out an alternative theory in the book Endless Universe: Beyond the Big Bang. Their model is based on a generalization of quantum superstring theory known as M-theory. According to her, the physical world has 11 dimensions - ten spatial and one temporal. Spaces of lower dimensions "float" in it, the so-called branes (short for "membrane"). Our universe is just one such brane.
The Steinhardt and Turok model argues that the Big Bang occurred as a result of the collision of our brane with another brane - an unknown universe. In this scenario, the collisions occur endlessly. According to the hypothesis of Steinhardt and Turok, another three-dimensional brane "floats" next to our brane, separated by a tiny distance. It also expands, flattens and empties, but after a trillion years the branes will begin to converge and eventually collide. This will release a huge amount of energy, particles and radiation. This cataclysm will launch another cycle of expansion and cooling of the Universe. It follows from the Steinhardt and Turok model that these cycles were in the past and will certainly repeat in the future. How these cycles began, the theory is silent.
The universe is like a computer
Another hypothesis about the structure of the universe says that our entire world is nothing more than a matrix or a computer program. The idea that the universe is a digital computer was first pioneered by German engineer and computer pioneer Konrad Zuse in his book Calculating Space. Among those who also viewed the universe as a giant computer are physicists Stephen Wolfram and Gerard 't Hooft.
Digital physics theorists assume that the universe is essentially information and therefore computable. It follows from these assumptions that the Universe can be viewed as the result of a computer program or digital computing device. This computer could be, for example, a giant cellular automaton or a universal Turing machine.
The uncertainty principle in quantum mechanics is called an indirect proof of the virtual nature of the universe.
According to the theory, every object and event of the physical world comes from asking questions and registering answers "yes" or "no". That is, behind everything that surrounds us, a certain code is hidden, similar to the binary code of a computer program. And we are a kind of interface through which access to the data of the "universal Internet" appears. The principle of uncertainty in quantum mechanics is called an indirect proof of the virtual nature of the Universe: particles of matter can exist in an unstable form, and are "fixed" in a specific state only when observing them.
Digital physics follower John Archibald Wheeler wrote: “It would not be unreasonable to imagine that information is in the core of physics as well as in the core of a computer. Everything from a bit. In other words, everything that exists - every particle, every force field, even the space-time continuum itself - gets its function, its meaning and, ultimately, its very existence."
Lyricist Artyom Luchko