Researchers Reveal How an Expanding Universe Can Emerge Without a “Big Bang”

Interesting new research in the Expanding Universe research department, makes sense.

I love when new theories are brought to light that explain more about the possibilities within the Universe.

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In a new study, an international team of researchers mathematically describe how an expanding universe can emerge when time and space are heated, without requiring anything like a “Big Bang”.

When soup is heated, it starts to boil. When time and space are heated, an expanding universe can emerge, without requiring anything like a “Big Bang”. This phase transition between a boring empty space and an expanding universe containing mass has now been mathematically described by a research team at the Vienna University of Technology, together with colleagues from Harvard, the MIT and Edinburgh. The idea behind this result is a remarkable connection between quantum field theory and Einstein’s theory of relativity.

A Cookbook for Spacetime
Everybody knows of the transitions between liquid, solid and gaseous phases. But also time and space can undergo a phase transition, as the physicists Steven Hawking and Don Page pointed out in 1983. They calculated that empty space can turn into a black hole at a specific temperature.

Can a similar process create a whole expanding universe such as ours? Daniel Grumiller from the Vienna University of Technology looked into this, together with colleagues from the USA and Great Britain. Their calculations show that there is indeed a critical temperature at which an empty, flat spacetime turns into an expanding universe with mass. “The empty spacetime starts to boil, little bubbles form, one of which expands and eventually takes up all of spacetime”, explains Grumiller.

For this to be possible, the universe has to rotate – so the recipe for creating the universe is “apply heat and stir”. However, the required rotation can be arbitrarily small. In a first step, a spacetime with only two spatial dimensions was considered. “But there is no reason why the same should not be true for a universe with three spatial dimensions”, says Grumiller.

Looking for the Structure of the Universe
Our own universe does not seem to have come into existence this way. The phase-transition model is not meant to replace the theory of the Big Bang. “Today, cosmologists know a lot about the early universe – we are not challenging their findings. But we are interested in the question, which phase transitions are possible for time and space and how the mathematical structure of spacetime can be described” says Grumiller.

The new theory is the logical next step after the so called “AdS-CFT correspondence”, a conjecture put forward in 1997, which has strongly influenced fundamental physics research ever since. It describes a peculiar connection between theories of gravity and quantum field theories – two areas which, at first glance, do not have much in common. In certain limiting cases, according to AdS-CFT correspondence, statements from quantum field theories can be translated into statements concerning gravitational theories and vice versa. This is almost as surprising as the idea of making statements about a stone falling to the ground by actually calculating the temperature of a hot gas. Two completely different areas are being connected – but it works.

In this kind of correspondence, the quantum field theory is always described in one fewer dimension than the gravitational theory. This is called “holographic principle”. Similar to a two dimensional hologram which can depict a three dimensional object, a quantum field theory with two spatial dimensions can describe a physical situation in three spatial dimensions.

A Correspondence Principle for Flat Spacetimes
To do this, the gravitational calculations usually have to be done in an exotic kind of geometry – in so-called “Anti-de-Sitter-spaces”, which are quite different from the flat geometry we are used to. However, it has been suspected for a while, that there may be a similar version of the “holographic principle” for flat spacetimes. But for a long time there haven’t been any models showing this.

Last year, Daniel Grumiller and colleagues established such a model (in two spatial dimensions, for simplicity). This led to the current question; phase transitions in quantum field theories are well known. But for symmetry reasons this would mean that gravitational theories should exhibit phase transitions too.

“At first, this was a mystery for us”, says Daniel Grumiller. “This would mean a phase transition between an empty spacetime and an expanding universe. To us, this sounded extremely implausible.” But the calculations showed exactly that. “We are only beginning to understand these remarkable correspondence relations”, says Daniel Grumiller. Which new ideas about our own universe can be derived from this, is hard to say – only spacetime will tell.

Yeah, that is more like it. The big bang theory is a joke. All evidence they have for the Big Bang theory may fit this. The universe does not need to be heated though, formation of a crystaline matrix can occur if it is cold also. There are many other possibilities also, energy bonds weakening between the stars or the bonds growing longer.

I hate the Big Bang theory, the ones who designed the theory were sex fanatics, thinking that something has to be banged to birth a universe.

These guys don't have balls though, they will not challenge the big bang theory.

BBT is just a plug to fill a big knowledge hole.
I suspect that any Scientist worth his or her salt dont really believe BBT is for real. But it is convenient for now!

So what caused the spinning and what caused the heat? And what exactly was there before it became the universe as we know it?

reply to post by theabsolutetruth


I can see how space can be heated but - how does one heat time?

Anyone? (It's a serious question.)

reply to post by theabsolutetruth


Total non-physicist here.

The empty spacetime starts to boil, little bubbles form, one of which expands and eventually takes up all of spacetime

If it's empty, what is there to boil? A bubble forms out of what? An empty space bubble made of empty time?

Where does the heat come from to boil whatever boils?

Sorry. Some of this stuff probably sounds great with mathematics but loses something with words.

Even though this doesn't solve the Chicken or the Egg debate, I think this origin theory makes more sense than the Big Bang. I'm probably visualizing this entirely wrong, but I'm seeing super-heated Universe Soup seeping through the layers of existence until stopping & coalescing at/in one. Filling up an empty swath with where we call home (our universe) Now, if it takes super-heated space & time to ooze into it's own form elsewhere, the question is, exactly where is that heat & ingredient origin source located? Do we exist in a black hole's, erm, matter & energy pimple, if you will, sprouted from the heat & crushing gravity of a super-massive black hole in another dimension? Or is the destination end of a black hole really another universe entirely? Would this theory even mesh well with the idea of our universe being the butt end of one?

It's all quite fascinating to ponder either way.

reply to post by theabsolutetruth


Give these jokers Math's plus Statistics and they can make 4 divided by 2 to equal 95.7

What am I missing? The quote that was posted reads, in part:

Our own universe does not seem to have come into existence this way. The phase-transition model is not meant to replace the theory of the Big Bang. “Today, cosmologists know a lot about the early universe – we are not challenging their findings.

That, to me, says the Big Bang theory is as lively as ever.

We living on these planets that circle the sun are just being spun in a centrifuge until we turn into a heavier element as the gases float away. So what happens when that is done? Do we get sucked into the sun and destroyed? Do we break the bonds with the sun and just spin off? Do we go critical with gravity and become a star? Black hole?

reply to post by AfterInfinity


There doesn't need to be anything before the universe came to exist because our Universe is the beginning of our time and space and therefore the beginning of everything.