Physicists mathematical model explores what happened before Big Bang

A group of Penn State University physicists have used a mathematical model to explore what exactly happened before the Big Bang.

Washington, July 2 : A group of Penn State University physicists have used a mathematical model to explore what exactly happened before the Big Bang.

"My paper introduces a new mathematical model that we can use to derive new details about the properties of a quantum state as it travels through the Big Bounce, which replaces the classical idea of a Big Bang as the beginning of our universe," said Martin Bojowald, assistant professor of physics at Penn State.

The idea that the universe erupted with a Big Bang explosion has been a big barrier in scientific attempts to understand the origin of the expanding universe. 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, Prof. Bojowald and his colleagues are exploring territory - the time before the Big Bang - using a mathematical time machine called Loop Quantum Gravity.

The theory indicates that the fabric of space-time has an "atomic" geometry that is woven with one-dimensional quantum threads.

This fabric tears violently under the extreme conditions dominated by quantum physics near the Big Bounce, causing gravity to become strongly repulsive so that, instead of vanishing into infinity as predicted by Einstein's Theory of General Relativity, the universe rebounded in the Big Bounce that gave birth to our expanding universe.

It further reveals a contracting universe before the Big Bounce, with space-time geometry that otherwise was similar to that of our universe today.

According to the team, 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.

"Einstein's Theory of General Relativity does not include the quantum physics that you must have in order to describe the extremely high energies that dominated our universe during its very early evolution, but we now have Loop Quantum Gravity, a theory that does include the necessary quantum physics," said Prof. Bojowald.

The study is scheduled for publication in the August issue of Nature Physics.

ANI