1 WHY IS THERE SOMETHING RATHER THAN NOTHING?
In the beginning, according to the standard picture of cosmology, was the ‘inflationary vacuum’. It had a super-high energy density and repulsive gravity, causing it to expand. The more of it there was, the greater the repulsion and the faster it expanded. In common with all things ‘quantum’, this vacuum was unpredictable. At random locations, it decayed into ordinary, everyday vacuum. The tremendous energy of the inflationary vacuum had to go somewhere. And it went into creating matter and heating it to a blisteringly high-temperature – into creating big bangs. Our Universe is merely one such Big Bang bubble in the ever-expanding inflationary vacuum.
Remarkably, this whole process could have started with a piece of inflationary vacuum with a mass equivalent to a bag of sugar. And, conveniently, the laws of physics – specifically, quantum theory – permit such matter to pop into existence from nothing. Of course, the next obvious question now is: where did the laws of physics come from?
Bu hikaye BBC Focus - Science & Technology dergisinin January 2021 sayısından alınmıştır.
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Bu hikaye BBC Focus - Science & Technology dergisinin January 2021 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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