Inflation 2

This time I actually did read about inflation, and it’s very very complicated. I’m beginning to think we are going to need more background in order to understand the theory. In particular I think we need a better understanding of the time line of things. So I looked for one on the internet and you know what, they didn’t have any good ones! So I tried to make my own. I kinda failed, but then my friend, an artist, helped me so now I have a very pretty timeline for you all. It is entirely based on Wikipedia’s interpretation of things. First comes the singularity, the initial moment of the big bang. This phase is extremely hazy and unknown due to its extraordinarily small size. It’s so small we don’t even know just how small it is! We really don’t know anything about it cause it has super ultra gravity and super ultra energies. The collisions inside CERN’s biggest collider don’t even come close to the energies at this point in the universe. Our current physics theories break down and all we are left with is mystery. Next comes the Planck epoch. It last from whenever the singularity ends to about 10^-43 seconds. This phase is also a great mystery. But we are a little closer to solving this one. We think that all of the fundamental forces where unified as one force. We also think that if we could get quantum mechanics and general relativity to go together (a most elusive task) then we would be able to understand the physics of this period. Next we have the grand unification epoch lasting from the end of the Planck epoch to 10^-36 seconds after the big bang. And it appears this entry is getting a tad long and shall have to be continued tomorrow!

God's Aside 1

Ya’ know how I said I would read more about inflation, well I didn’t. So instead I think I shall do something a bit rash a probably not very wise. I would like to take a moment to dwell on God, and his role in this whole thing. I mean, just think about it for a moment, yes the scientific method and Ockham’s razor are important and what not…but, just assume for a moment there really is a God of the christain/jewish/muslim type, you know omnipotent, omnipresent, and obviously the creator of the universe and so forth. Those that hold to the aforementioned religions groups represent over half the world’s population, and they all believe in the same sort of God. I should think taking a look at the implications of such would have some sort of merit. And yes, I am aware that it is a bit of philosophical undertaking…and while I’m not that keen on philosophers, and at the risk of eating my word and turning into my own worst enemy, I would like to take a look at it, in an extremely irreverent and sacrilegious way, of course. And I think I shall us my occasional aside to do that. That, and nobody comments. I feel as though if I say something super controversial you will comment! Not that I really like getting into arguments and I wouldn’t say something just to get a rise out of someone (ok, that’s not entirely ture). But anyway comment. I want to hear what’s on your mind.

Inflation 1

Yes! My ‘But wait’ series has been building up to something. There is a theory which solves some of the problems we’ve discussed here. It’s called inflationary theory and it was developed 1980. It was invented in order to address the monopole problem but it also, inadvertently addresses the flatness and horizon problems. The reader’s digest version goes like this. After the universe cooled down a little, but before the particles and anti-particles started to form, something weird happened with physics. Have you ever seen a very very still pond the morning after a frost? Well that pond is supercooled. Its actual temperature is below freezing but it hasn’t started to form ice yet. Well the same thing happened with the universe. It cooled to the point where it should have started ‘freezing’ or particles should have started forming but they didn’t. I don’t know why, but they didn’t. It just kept on cooling and settling. Then all at once with a big cosmic ripple the energy condensed into matter. You know the equation E=mc^2. Well that says that if for instance you put in 15 units of energy and convert it to mass you get in 15/c^2 units of mass. C stands for the speed of light, 300000000 or 3*10^8 meters per second. So 15 divided by that is a really small number, a really small number. So when the energy started forming into mass the energy in the universe stated to drop dramatically. But then something else happened. When particles are formed they like to go together, to form pair or triples and when they find a group they really like and want to settle into, they release energy. So there was this tidal wave of energy like in the picture, or at least that is what I got from my little bit of reading on the subject. And this fixes our problems…but I don’t know how yet…and I’m out of space today, so perhaps I will tackle this tomorrow.

but wait! part 5

Another problem that I had not previously known about was the monopole problem. When the physicists figured up all the aspects of the big bang using their theoretical calculations (the use something called the grand unification theory) they predicted something called a magnetic monopole. These monopoles are basically the particle that goes with magnets. You know how electrons and protons are the particles for the eclectic charge and so forth…(well actually it’s the quarks but that’s beside the point) well the monopoles are suppose to be the particle for magnets…but as you probably learned in high school magnets always come in pairs, they come with a north and south pole so you can’t have just one of them. What the theory says is that we there should have been a bunch of monopole particles (north poles) and anti-monopoles (south poles) that were created about the same time the matter and antimatter we talked about earlier was created. But we haven’t found any monopoles. There should be a much of them left, but none of them ever show up. I’m just reading about this issue for the first time so it’s all very new and unfamiliar to me. If anyone knows more about it, please feel free to comment and expound on what we have here.

but wait! part 4

So for this entry I would like to take a moment to ponder further on the topic of the antimatter problem. I did some reading today and found that there are a number of theories to explain the discrepancy. One of interest proposes that due to a very slight difference in matter from antimatter they decay at different rates, implying that most of the antimatter that was created in the big bang has since decayed and all we are left with is the normal matter. One of the most interesting parts of this theory is that people are currently in the process of testing it. At CERN in France/Switzerland they have built something called the Large Hadron Collider to investigate some of the most fundamental questions in particle physics. One of these questions is what happened to all the antimatter. What they plan to do is create beauty quarks (a rare and quickly decaying particle) and their antiparticle and watch them decay. If it seems that the antiparticle decays faster, this would be an indication of the former theory having merit. I intent to keep close tabs on the progress of the LHCb for further developments.

but wait! part 3

Another issue with the big bang has to do with what the universe is made of. So you know how I ran through the timeline of the big bang a couple entries ago. Well at that point where the energy cools down enough to start forming matter something strange seems to have happened. When energy like photons spontaneously transforms into matter (yes this does happen, a common way in which it happens can be found here) it produces an equal amount of matter and antimatter. So when all the energy of the early cooled down and formed matter it should have made equal numbers of matter and antimatter. It should be noted that when a piece of matter and antimatter collide the annihilate each other and turn back into the photon that produced them. So there are two possible things that could have happened. Either all of the matter and antimatter would have collided and annihilated or they would have separated and gone to different parts of the universe. But we have a slight problem. We haven’t found any of that antimatter. The only antimatter we ever see was produced recently, but cosmic collisions or pair production. We haven’t found any from the early universe. This is obviously strange and hard to explain. Personally I think we should be looking for it. Perhaps there is a natural separating force that spreads them apart when they are in large numbers or…I don’t something that drove them to the edge of space-time or something. Or perhaps they are in a different dimension…well, I guess that’s why they call it a mystery.

Aside

I thought i would grace you with a 'lolcat.'