This is one of the best books I have read in recent years that summarizes the laws of physics and the origin of the universe in a splendid manner. The author describes as how our universe was created out of nothing; just an empty space with virtual particles using quantum physics and relativity without invoking string or brane theories.
Moments after the big bang, a slight asymmetry in the distributions of matter and antimatter resulted in our universe. This asymmetry was extremely minute, one part in a billion, which means that there were approximately one billion photons for every proton (matter) in the universe, which is still found in the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR), remnants of the glow of early universe; the moment after matter-antimatter annihilation occurred. The essence of the book is that the application of the laws of quantum physics and relativity to physical reality produces facts that stun common sense. The reader begins to appreciate the author's argument and the physical laws that support it. The author also has a humorous look at the nature of things while discussing strangeness of quantum physics. At several instances he jabs at politicians, leaders of corporations, and men who profess to preach God, with hard facts of physics.
A summary of the book is as follows: When a balloon gets blown up larger and larger at a fast pace, the curvature at its surface gets smaller and smaller, closer to being flat. A similar mechanism called inflation lead the early universe into a long lived universe removing all its curvature. The cosmic inflation is a period rapid of exponential expansion of our universe, moments after its birth. As the energy of empty space is converted into the energy of something, the universe was driven closer and closer to being essentially flat on all observable scales. Secondly, the laws of quantum physics imply on very small scales for very short times, empty space is a boiling bubbling brew of virtual particles with wildly fluctuating fields. These quantum fluctuations ended the period of exponential expansion during inflation. That is, different regions of the early universe stopped inflating at slightly different times and the density of matter and radiation were slightly different. These small fluctuations in the density of matter resulted in gravitational collapse to form galaxies, and later stars. It is the quantum fluctuations of empty space, the quantum nothingness that evolved into cosmos. If a closed universe had been created (with curvature); it would have collapsed on its own gravity, leaving nothing. A flat universe mediated by inflationary expansion led to a long lived universe.
Virtual universes that pop in and out of existence, within a very short time, are interesting theoretical constructs. The virtual photons carry zero energy, and they do not violate energy conservation or Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle. Hence the formation of virtual particles from empty space is in accordance with laws of physics. The dynamics and the nature of things are not as simple as they appear from Newtonian laws of physics. For example, when an object is moving through space, the space itself evolves with time and the terms of present and future becomes relative and not absolute, according to relativistic physics, and the laws of quantum physics applies not only to physical properties of objects but space itself.
The phenomenon of Hawking-radiation applies quantum physics to a classical entity such as black hole and this study reveals that a black hole can radiate virtual particles. Due to quantum fluctuation in its vicinity, just outside the event horizon, one of the partner particle falls inside the event horizon and loose its gravitational energy; the other partner particle will fly off to infinity clearly visible in the universe without violating in the laws of the energy conservation. The total positive energy of this particle is compensated by its twin particle's lost energy. Thus the black hole is able to radiate particles. The net effect of a particle falling inside the black hole results in its lowering of energy than before. This process progressively results in a black hole less and less energy and finally the black holes disappear out of existence. Thus the reality of something coming out of nothing during the beginning of the universe or something going out of existence from something is real.
For every effect there is a cause, but what was there before the first cause? Vedanta philosophy reasoned from this conundrum that the universe and God must be eternal. There is no first cause, in fact causes go backwards and forwards in all directions. There is no beginning and no end. Physics offers a more convincing argument for the concept of God in the idea of multiverse. According to this, our universe is one of the several billions of universes, each with its own set of physical laws and physical reality. The fundamental forces and universal constants are not unique in multiverse physics and anthropic principle is unnecessary. Only the inhabitants of a universe can see and experience their universe, but God as an entity can see and experience all the universes.
Moments after the big bang, a slight asymmetry in the distributions of matter and antimatter resulted in our universe. This asymmetry was extremely minute, one part in a billion, which means that there were approximately one billion photons for every proton (matter) in the universe, which is still found in the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR), remnants of the glow of early universe; the moment after matter-antimatter annihilation occurred. The essence of the book is that the application of the laws of quantum physics and relativity to physical reality produces facts that stun common sense. The reader begins to appreciate the author's argument and the physical laws that support it. The author also has a humorous look at the nature of things while discussing strangeness of quantum physics. At several instances he jabs at politicians, leaders of corporations, and men who profess to preach God, with hard facts of physics.
A summary of the book is as follows: When a balloon gets blown up larger and larger at a fast pace, the curvature at its surface gets smaller and smaller, closer to being flat. A similar mechanism called inflation lead the early universe into a long lived universe removing all its curvature. The cosmic inflation is a period rapid of exponential expansion of our universe, moments after its birth. As the energy of empty space is converted into the energy of something, the universe was driven closer and closer to being essentially flat on all observable scales. Secondly, the laws of quantum physics imply on very small scales for very short times, empty space is a boiling bubbling brew of virtual particles with wildly fluctuating fields. These quantum fluctuations ended the period of exponential expansion during inflation. That is, different regions of the early universe stopped inflating at slightly different times and the density of matter and radiation were slightly different. These small fluctuations in the density of matter resulted in gravitational collapse to form galaxies, and later stars. It is the quantum fluctuations of empty space, the quantum nothingness that evolved into cosmos. If a closed universe had been created (with curvature); it would have collapsed on its own gravity, leaving nothing. A flat universe mediated by inflationary expansion led to a long lived universe.
Virtual universes that pop in and out of existence, within a very short time, are interesting theoretical constructs. The virtual photons carry zero energy, and they do not violate energy conservation or Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle. Hence the formation of virtual particles from empty space is in accordance with laws of physics. The dynamics and the nature of things are not as simple as they appear from Newtonian laws of physics. For example, when an object is moving through space, the space itself evolves with time and the terms of present and future becomes relative and not absolute, according to relativistic physics, and the laws of quantum physics applies not only to physical properties of objects but space itself.
The phenomenon of Hawking-radiation applies quantum physics to a classical entity such as black hole and this study reveals that a black hole can radiate virtual particles. Due to quantum fluctuation in its vicinity, just outside the event horizon, one of the partner particle falls inside the event horizon and loose its gravitational energy; the other partner particle will fly off to infinity clearly visible in the universe without violating in the laws of the energy conservation. The total positive energy of this particle is compensated by its twin particle's lost energy. Thus the black hole is able to radiate particles. The net effect of a particle falling inside the black hole results in its lowering of energy than before. This process progressively results in a black hole less and less energy and finally the black holes disappear out of existence. Thus the reality of something coming out of nothing during the beginning of the universe or something going out of existence from something is real.
For every effect there is a cause, but what was there before the first cause? Vedanta philosophy reasoned from this conundrum that the universe and God must be eternal. There is no first cause, in fact causes go backwards and forwards in all directions. There is no beginning and no end. Physics offers a more convincing argument for the concept of God in the idea of multiverse. According to this, our universe is one of the several billions of universes, each with its own set of physical laws and physical reality. The fundamental forces and universal constants are not unique in multiverse physics and anthropic principle is unnecessary. Only the inhabitants of a universe can see and experience their universe, but God as an entity can see and experience all the universes.
Reference: A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather than Nothing by Lawrence M. Krauss
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