Quote:
Originally Posted by shane.mcneil
Forgive me if I am sounding really dumb here. I am trying to follow the concepts.  Is what you are describing here a form of the big bounce universe as opposed to the big bang? Where our universe is expanding from a singularity "interface" from a previously collapsing universe?
Shane |
No, that's another topic altogether. What I was saying there is (amongst other things in previous posts) that the universe we live in "unfolded" from a higher dimensional state...if you follow SUSY (supersymmetry) and String Theory, it's an 11 dimensional "superspace" (a "space of all spaces").
Though, if you follow M-Theory, this superspace contains multidimensional spacetime membranes which float about and periodically collide with one another. It's this collision which generates the Big Bang event within the brane.
When you talk about a big bounce universe, there is no singularity present. The previous universe basically collapses into an indeterminate state where most of the information about that universe is lost. It then re-expands into a new universe with new constants and fundamental values of state. Even with a "normal" big bang universe, there is no singularity. To have a singularity, you have to have zero size and infinite density. Before it even got to that, quantum fluctuations would prevent it from forming. A singularity, by definition, would be an absolute location and frame of reference, simply because of it's dimensional state. That's why Relativity breaks down at that scale, it's equations simply become nonsensical. It's also why QM would prevent it from forming...because it can't become infinitely dense and zero in size as that would violate the Pauli Exclusion Principle, for a start. What would happen is once the universe approached the Planck Scale time/size limit, random quantum fluctuations would smear its existence out into an indeterminate state of probabilities. It would essentially return to the higher dimensional state out of which it first formed. Or just before it went completely back to that condition, a spike in the quantum field would cause another bubble to form and expand into a new universe (the bounce scenario).