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Math Says Big Bang Was Big Bounce

By combining General Relativity with quantum physics unknown to Einstein, a Penn State physicist shows the mathematical viability of a collapsing universe before the Big Bang. Steve Mirsky reports.














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July 2, 2007  Math Says Big Bang Was Big Bounce

It’s a question that’s been asked by kids, adults and professional physicists—what if anything was there before the Big Bang, the ginormous explosion that marked the beginning of the universe.  Or possibly just the current universe?  Because one physicist has published a new model that at least gives mathematical credence to the idea that before we were here another universe collapsed.  And the Big Bang was more like a Big Bounce.

That’s according to Penn State’s Marin Bojowald, whose paper appeared in the online edition of the journal Nature Physics on July 1st and will be published in the print edition’s August issue. 
 
In Einstein’s General Relativity, the Big Bang is a singularity—zero volume, infinite density and infinitely large energy.  Which is kind of annoying mathematically.  Bojowald and other physicists combined General Relativity with quantum physics unknown to Einstein.  They then get a starting point for this universe with a non-zero volume and a non-infinite energy.  So you get valid math results before the point of the Big Bang.  Which would have been a contracting universe with space time geometry similar to our own.   


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  1. 1. Neil_Polymathes 12:27 PM 1/9/08

    This is my opinion: Big Bang is an unstable model. You must expand and then contract (Big Crunch) and then expand, etc. If fail to prove that it is able to cool into contraction, then you must view the balloon as infinitely inflating until it rips apart. I don't adhere to this or the well thought out Steady State model either (It was affected by observed Expansion). If I had to describe my impression of the universe, I would call it the dynamic Active Drift Universe. (Like a gravitationally fluid state in weightless atmosphere. Dusk in window light, particles in a cup of water. A state of diffusion where particles have a different density and attractive force, than the weightless suspension fluid. The radiant convection energy of stars actually pushes away nearby stars. Beyond their EM diffusion bubbles, the only reason they can collide is enough directional momentum has formed to overcome the weak repelling force.)

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  2. 2. Neil_Polymathes 12:27 PM 1/9/08

    We need an option to delete repeat posts.

    --
    Edited by Neil_Polymathes at 01/09/2008 4:30 AM

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  3. 3. Neil_Polymathes 12:28 PM 1/9/08

    We need an option to delete repeat posts.

    --
    Edited by Neil_Polymathes at 01/09/2008 4:29 AM

    Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this
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