The very first matter
Prior to we get to that, lets take a look at how “material”– physical matter– first came about. If we are intending to discuss the origins of stable matter made from particles or atoms, there was definitely none of that around at the Big Bang– nor for numerous thousands of years afterwards. We perform in truth have a quite detailed understanding of how the very first atoms formed out of simpler particles as soon as conditions cooled down enough for intricate matter to be steady, and how these atoms were later fused into much heavier components inside stars. That understanding does not address the question of whether something came from absolutely nothing.
Lets believe further back. The very first long-lived matter particles of any kind were protons and neutrons, which together make up the atomic nucleus. These originated around one ten-thousandth of a second after the Big Bang. Before that point, there was truly no material in any familiar sense of the word. Physics lets us keep on tracing the timeline backwards– to physical processes which precede any stable matter.
This takes us to the so-called “grand combined epoch.” By now, we are well into the world of speculative physics, as we cant produce adequate energy in our experiments to probe the sort of procedures that were going on at the time. But a plausible hypothesis is that the real world was made up of a soup of brief primary particles– consisting of quarks, the structure blocks of protons and neutrons. There was both matter and “antimatter” in approximately equivalent amounts: each type of matter particle, such as the quark, has an antimatter “mirror image” companion, which is near similar to itself, varying only in one element. Matter and antimatter annihilate in a flash of energy when they fulfill, suggesting these particles were continuously created and destroyed.
Quantum field theory informs us that even a vacuum, supposedly corresponding to empty spacetime, is complete of physical activity in the form of energy variations. This may sound like a mathematical quirk rather than real physics, however such particles have been identified in numerous experiments.
The spacetime vacuum state is fuming with particles constantly being created and ruined, obviously “out of absolutely nothing”. But perhaps all this really informs us is that the quantum vacuum is (regardless of its name) a something rather than an absolutely nothing. The thinker David Albert has memorably slammed accounts of the Big Bang which assure to get something from absolutely nothing in this way.
Simulation of quantum vacuum changes in quantum chromodynamics. Credit: Wikimedia/Ahmed Neutron
Suppose we ask: where did spacetime itself arise from? Then we can go on turning the clock yet even more back, into the genuinely ancient “Planck epoch”– a duration so early in the universes history that our best theories of physics break down. This period occurred just one ten-millionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a 2nd after the Big Bang. At this area, point and time themselves became subject to quantum fluctuations. Physicists generally work independently with quantum mechanics, which rules the microworld of particles, and with general relativity, which applies on big, cosmic scales. But to truly comprehend the Planck date, we require a complete theory of quantum gravity, merging the two.
We still do not have an ideal theory of quantum gravity, but there are efforts– like string theory and loop quantum gravity. In these attempts, normal area and time are typically viewed as emergent, like the waves on the surface area of a deep ocean. What we experience as space and time are the item of quantum procedures operating at a deeper, microscopic level– processes that do not make much sense to us as animals rooted in the macroscopic world.
In the Planck epoch, our regular understanding of area and time breaks down, so we cant any longer count on our common understanding of domino effect either. In spite of this, all candidate theories of quantum gravity explain something physical that was going on in the Planck epoch– some quantum precursor of regular area and time. Where did that come from?
Even if causality no longer applies in any normal style, it may still be possible to explain one component of the Planck-epoch universe in regards to another. Sadly, by now even our best physics stops working entirely to provide answers. Up until we make more progress towards a “theory of whatever”, we wont have the ability to provide any definitive answer. The most we can say with self-confidence at this stage is that physics has actually up until now discovered no confirmed circumstances of something arising from absolutely nothing
Cycles from practically nothing.
To genuinely respond to the question of how something might develop from absolutely nothing, we would need to describe the quantum state of the whole universe at the start of the Planck epoch. All attempts to do this remain highly speculative. Some of them attract supernatural forces like a designer. Other candidate descriptions remain within the world of physics– such as a multiverse, which contains an unlimited number of parallel universes, or cyclical models of the universe, being born and born-again once again.
The 2020 Nobel Prize-winning physicist Roger Penrose has proposed one questionable but intriguing design for a cyclical universe called “conformal cyclic cosmology”. Penrose was motivated by an intriguing mathematical connection between an extremely hot, thick, little state of the universe– as it was at the Big Bang– and an incredibly cold, empty, expanded state of the universe– as it will be in the far future.
The advancement of the universes after the Big Bang. Credit: NASA
READER QUESTION: My understanding is that nothing comes from nothing. Now my question: Where did the product come from that produced the Big Bang, and what took place in the very first circumstances to develop that product?
Warned the physicist Brian Cox in the recent BBC series Universe. All matter will ultimately be taken in by monstrous black holes, which in their turn will vaporize away into the dimmest twinkles of light. Space will broaden ever outwards up until even that dim light becomes too spread out to engage.
Or will it? Strangely enough, some cosmologists believe a previous, cold dark empty universe like the one which lies in our far future might have been the source of our extremely own Big Bang.
In this view, the Big Bang develops from a practically absolutely nothing. Thats whats left over when all the matter in a universe has been taken in into black holes, which have in turn boiled away into photons– lost in a void. The entire universe thus develops from something that– viewed from another physical perspective– is as close as one can get to absolutely nothing at all. That nothing is still a kind of something. It is still a physical universe, however empty.
How can the extremely exact same state be a cold, empty universe from one viewpoint and a hot dense universe from another? The answer depends on a complex mathematical treatment called “conformal rescaling,” a geometrical improvement which in result changes the size of a things but leaves its shape unchanged.
Penrose showed how the cold thick state and the hot dense state might be related by such rescaling so that they match with respect to the shapes of their spacetimes– although not to their sizes. It is, undoubtedly, hard to grasp how two objects can be similar in this method when they have different sizes– however Penrose argues size as a principle stops to make sense in such extreme physical environments.
In conformal cyclic cosmology, the instructions of explanation goes from old and cold to young and hot: the hot thick state exists because of the cold empty state. However this “because” is not the familiar one– of a cause followed in time by its impact. It is not only size that ceases to be pertinent in these extreme states: time does too. The cold thick state and the hot thick state are in result situated on various timelines. The cold empty state would advance forever from the point of view of an observer in its own temporal geometry, however the hot dense state it provides increase to successfully populates a brand-new timeline all its own.
It may help to understand the hot thick state as produced from the cold empty state in some non-causal way. Perhaps we should state that the hot thick state emerges from, or is grounded in, or realized by the cold, empty state. These are distinctly esoteric concepts which have been explored by philosophers of science extensively, especially in the context of quantum gravity where common cause and effect appear to break down. At the limits of our knowledge, physics and viewpoint end up being difficult to disentangle.
Experimental evidence?
Conformal cyclic cosmology provides some comprehensive, albeit speculative, answers to the question of where our Big Bang came from. Even if Penroses vision is vindicated by the future development of cosmology, we might believe that we still would not have answered a deeper philosophical concern– a question about where physical reality itself came from. How did the entire system of cycles happen? We finally end up with the pure question of why there is something rather than nothing– one of the biggest concerns of metaphysics.
Our focus here is on explanations which stay within the realm of physics. There are three broad alternatives to the deeper concern of how the cycles started. It could have no physical explanation at all. Or there might be endlessly duplicating cycles, each a universe in its own right, with the initial quantum state of each universe described by some feature of deep space prior to. Or there might be one single cycle, and one single repeating universe, with the start of that cycle described by some feature of its own end. The latter two methods prevent the need for any uncaused events– and this provides an unique appeal. Nothing would be left inexplicable by physics.
Continuous cycles of unique universes in conformal cyclic cosmology. Credit: Roger Penrose
Penrose envisages a series of endless brand-new cycles for factors partly connected to his own favored interpretation of quantum theory. In quantum mechanics, a physical system exists in a superposition of various states at the same time, and just “chooses one” randomly, when we determine it. For Penrose, each cycle includes random quantum events turning out a various way– implying each cycle will differ from those before and after it. This is in fact excellent news for speculative physicists, due to the fact that it might enable us to look the old universe that generated ours through faint traces, or anomalies, in the leftover radiation from the Big Bang seen by the Planck satellite.
Penrose and his partners believe they may have found these traces currently, attributing patterns in the Planck information to radiation from supermassive black holes in the previous universe. Nevertheless, their declared observations have actually been challenged by other physicists and the jury stays out.
Map of the cosmic microwave background radiation. ESA and the Planck Collaboration
Endless new cycles are essential to Penroses own vision. There is a natural way to convert conformal cyclic cosmology from a multi-cycle to a one-cycle type. Physical reality consists in a single biking around through the Big Bang to a maximally empty state in the far future– and then around once again to the really exact same Big Bang, offering increase to the extremely same universe all over again.
The many-worlds interpretation informs us that each time we measure a system that is in superposition, this measurement doesnt randomly select a state. Instead, the measurement outcome we see is just one possibility– the one that plays out in our own universe. The other measurement results all play out in other universes in a multiverse, successfully cut off from our own.
Some individuals believe such parallel universes may also be observable in cosmological information, as imprints triggered by another universe hitting ours.
Many-worlds quantum theory provides a new twist on conformal cyclic cosmology, though not one that Penrose concurs with. Our Big Bang may be the renewal of one single quantum multiverse, containing infinitely many different universes all occurring together. Everything possible occurs– then it happens once again and again and once again.
An ancient myth
For a philosopher of science, Penroses vision is fascinating. It opens up brand-new possibilities for describing the Big Bang, taking our descriptions beyond normal cause and result. It is for that reason a great test case for checking out the various ways physics can describe our world. It deserves more attention from philosophers.
For a fan of misconception, Penroses vision is lovely. In Penroses favored multi-cycle form, it assures endless brand-new worlds born from the ashes of their ancestors. The ouroboros myth has actually been recorded all over the world– including as far back as ancient Egypt.
Ouroboros on the tomb of Tutankhamun. Credit: Djehouty/Wikimedia
The ouroboros of the one cyclic universe is majestic undoubtedly. It contains within its stomach our own universe, along with each of the wonderful and weird alternative possible universes enabled by quantum physics– and at the point where its head meets its tail, it is entirely empty yet also surging with energy at temperatures of a hundred thousand million billion trillion degrees Celsius. Even Loki, the shapeshifter, would be impressed.
Written by Alastair Wilson, Professor of Philosophy, University of Birmingham.
This article was first published in The Conversation.
To really answer the question of how something could emerge from nothing, we would need to describe the quantum state of the entire universe at the beginning of the Planck date. Other candidate explanations remain within the world of physics– such as a multiverse, which contains an unlimited number of parallel universes, or cyclical designs of the universe, being born and born-again again.
Penrose was influenced by a fascinating mathematical connection between a very hot, thick, little state of the universe– as it was at the Big Bang– and an incredibly cold, empty, expanded state of the universe– as it will be in the far future. Or there could be endlessly duplicating cycles, each a universe in its own right, with the preliminary quantum state of each universe discussed by some function of the universe before. It consists of within its stomach our own universe, as well as every one of the terrific and weird alternative possible universes enabled by quantum physics– and at the point where its head fulfills its tail, it is totally empty yet also gushing with energy at temperature levels of a hundred thousand million billion trillion degrees Celsius.
