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    Cosmological Frontiers
    Cosmological Frontiers
    Cosmological Frontiers
    Ebook397 pages7 hours

    Cosmological Frontiers

    By Anab Whitehouse

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    About this ebook

    ‘Cosmological Frontiers’ explores a variety of topical themes within the general fields of cosmology and astrophysics such as: Dark matter, dark energy, black holes, theory of gravity, redshift, plasmas, the electric universe, cosmic microwave background radiation, branes, the Big Bang theory, and the Steady State model. More generally, the current volume gives expression to a process of critically reflecting on some of the discoveries of astrophysics and the field of cosmology as a means of seeking the truth about the nature of certain aspects of reality.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAnab Whitehouse
    Release dateOct 22, 2018
    ISBN9780463393284
    Cosmological Frontiers
    Author

    Anab Whitehouse

    Dr. Whitehouse received an honors degree in Social Relations from Harvard University. In addition, he earned a doctorate in Educational Theory from the University of Toronto. For nearly a decade, Dr. Whitehouse taught at several colleges and universities in both the United States and Canada. The courses he offered focused on various facets of psychology, philosophy, criminal justice, and diversity. Dr. Whitehouse has written more than 37 books. Some of the topics covered in those works include: Evolution, quantum physics, cosmology, psychology, neurobiology, philosophy, and constitutional law.

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      Cosmological Frontiers - Anab Whitehouse

      Cosmological Frontiers

      By Dr. Anab Whitehouse

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      © Anab Whitehouse, 2018

      The Interrogative Imperative Institute

      Brewer, Maine

      04412

      The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance – it is the illusion of knowledge.

      Daniel J. Boorstin

      Table of Contents

      Foreword

      Chapter 1: Meet the Champ

      Chapter 2: The Meaning of Red

      Chapter 3: Noise

      Chapter 4: The Electric Universe

      Chapter 5: Matters of Gravity

      Chapter 6: Mysterious Holes

      Chapter 7: Through A Glass Darkly

      Chapter 8: Expanding Horizons

      Chapter 9: Branes for Hire

      Chapter 10: Odds and an End

      Bibliography

      Foreword

      While many people today – especially scientists and the people over whom the former individuals have influential sway – are under the impression that science offers the best way to discover the nature of reality, nonetheless, an array of considerations have been put forward in my other written works -- including the current volume -- which seek to give credence to the possibility that however valuable science might be as a means of engaging a variety of physical problems, nevertheless, epistemologically speaking, science still leaves much to be desired, and, consequently, many unknowns and uncertainties permeate the fabric of the sciences.

      I am not convinced that science – despite its heuristic value -- is the best way to go about trying to resolve the reality problem in a temporal context that is severely limited by the demands (e.g., work, sleep, family, community, school, physical needs) placed on the uses to which such time is put. One is likely to be dead and gone for quite some time before the methodologies of science and mathematics will be able to make even limited headway concerning the nature of physical reality … not to mention trying to make progress with respect to issues involving the nature of consciousness, intelligence, creativity, talent, reason, language, morality, and spirituality, and, yet, one is faced with the problem of having to deal with life and make decisions about how to proceed despite being immersed in many unknowns.

      More than half a century ago, C.P. Snow introduced the notion of Two Cultures (i.e., humanities and sciences) to talk about different ways of engaging the reality problem. In many respects, that notion might be far too limiting, and, consequently, we should not necessarily restrict ourselves to what the foregoing two kinds of disciplines have to offer in the way of ideas methodologies, or theories, and, instead, we need to become focused on critically engaging those disciplines with the purpose of trying to discover the nature of truth quite independently of whether what is found has the stamp of approval of either the humanities or the sciences.

      There is, I believe, a third culture (a culture of truth) that transcends, even as it includes, elements of science and humanities and depends on something more than the methodologies inherent in those two disciplines. The process of critical reflection that is at the heart of the pages of this book is intended to give expression to some considerations beyond science and humanities that might be of value when trying to engage the reality problem with which we all are confronted.

      To be sure, such a journey of discovery requires a familiarity with, and understanding of, the work being done in both the humanities and sciences. That is, one must have a certain level of literacy when it comes to understanding and appreciating what the humanities and sciences have to offer.

      Nonetheless, the hybrid epistemological/hermeneutical vehicle by means of which one makes ones way through life must be capable of running on a fuel that transcends both of the foregoing disciplines. This fuel must have the potential to attain conceptual escape velocity and not just putter along with an orbital velocity that is buffeted about by the social, institutional, ideological, and historical forces to which the practice of humanities and sciences often tend to give expression.

      Of course, when one begins to experiment with the composition of fuels – especially ones that are intended to be powerful enough to carry one away from the gravitational pull of such massive bodies as the humanities and the sciences -- there is always the risk that one’s efforts will blow up in one’s face or end in some other kind of tragedy. Knowing what one needs to do in life and being able to realize that intention are not necessarily synonymous with one another.

      Throughout my written works, I have been attempting to follow something akin to the method attributed to Michelangelo (the possibility that this attribution might be apocryphal is irrelevant). In other words, I have been seeking to chisel away, or remove, whatever elements seem not to belong as far as my conceptual sculpture of The Reality Problem is concerned.

      There is an interstitial quality to the foregoing chiseling process. The conceptual or hermeneutical sculpture to which I am alluding is not so much a function of whatever substantive facts remain after the chipping activity has been completed, as much as the intended figure or object of understanding to which attention is being drawn tends to reside in the conceptual spaces beyond and between those factual residues, just as the placing of two appropriately shaped vases (or candlesticks) creates the image of several facial profiles in the space between those vases (candlesticks).

      The chiseling process is critical reflection. Critical reflection is not just a function of reasoning of one kind or another.

      Critical reflection gives expression to everything within us – experience, needs, interests, intelligence, rationality, emotions, intuition, imagination, the ‘self’, creativity, curiosity, questions, judgments, and so on – that is intent on trying to find the truths inherent in reality. Critical reflection is a reiterative process that continues to feed the results of previous rounds of critical reflection through the grinding process which constitutes critical reflection – that is, the constant process of: (1) Asking questions concerning, (2) posing problems with respect to, (3) rigorously examining the properties of, (4) probing the possibilities inherent in, and (5) evaluating the strengths and weakness entailed by the data of experience  … both mine and that of others.

      Critical reflection is the fuel that help makes possible (but might not be solely responsible for) the achievement of escape velocity possible with respect to the gravitational pull of the humanities and sciences. If one makes mistakes with respect to the composition, refinement, and use of the sorts of fuels being alluded to, one’s attempted journey to the realms of truth that lie within, as well as beyond, the humanities and sciences is likely to suffer delays, setbacks and problems … if not disaster.

      Everyone is responsible for his or her own fuel work and the consequences that ensue from such work. No one has the right to impose his or her solutions with respect to that sort of work on other human beings, and, in addition, one bears responsibility for whatever difficulties that work causes in relation to other human beings.

      On the other hand, sharing potential solutions with others, or consulting with one another concerning those possibilities, seems eminently reasonable and, potentially, quite constructive. This is the spirit with which this book being written.

      Chapter 1: Meet the Champ

      When Einstein released his ideas on General Relativity in 1915, the dominant model of the universe was a variant on what became known as the ‘Static or Steady State Theory of the Universe’. Although the latter model has assumed a variety of forms over the years, the basic idea was that the universe has always existed, and the manner in which the cosmos operated could be described through the laws of physics … such as those that were given expression through general relativity (i.e., Einstein’s re-visioning of Newton’s theory of gravity).

      In 1917, Einstein introduced a cosmological constant – lambda, Λ -- into his earlier field equations to account for why the universe did not collapse under the constant pull of universal gravitational attraction. The foregoing constant alluded to the presence of some sort of force that resisted the presence of gravitational attraction by an amount that was sufficient to keep things pretty much on a steady-as-she-goes heading.

      The addition of the aforementioned cosmological constant was later referred to by Einstein as being his greatest blunder. Supposedly, the nature of the error was laid bare through the work of, among others, Edwin Hubble in the 1920s that was rooted in empirical data indicating that the universe might be expanding.

      Even before Hubble undertook his groundbreaking work in astronomy, a Russian mathematician, Alexander Friedman, had given Einstein’s field equations a workout and appeared to show there were solutions to those equations indicating that the universe was expanding. Einstein disagreed with Friedman’s conclusions because Einstein was committed to the idea of a -- relatively speaking -- static universe, but, apparently, there were hidden dimensions in the equations of general relativity that even Einstein had not suspected (a scenario that would be played out again in relation to the issue of black holes).

      Einstein’s alleged blunder would become rehabilitated – possibly --more than half a century later when astronomical data seemed to demonstrate that the universe was expanding as a result of the presence of a force referred to by many as dark energy. Einstein’s notion of a cosmological constant appeared to be intimately connected with the – purportedly -- newly discovered force, and, therefore, Einstein’s alleged blunder might actually turn out to be a prescient intuition concerning the nature of a very significant dimension of the universe (There will be more discussion on this topic later on in the book.).

      Despite the pronouncements of individuals such as Immanuel Kant that gave expression to the idea that the universe consisted of many galaxies, nonetheless, until the 1920s, most scientists believed the Milky Way was the only galaxy in the universe. Indeed, such individuals considered the Milky Way and the universe to be, more or less, coextensive.

      The nebulae that could be observed through telescopes were interpreted as clouds of dust and gas that, eventually, might coalesce into stars. However, such clouds – along with their possible, subsequent development into stars -- were considered to be phenomena that took place fully within the Milky Way galaxy.

      One of the foregoing nebulae was known as M31. In 1924, using the 100-inch telescope located at the summit -- a little over a mile high -- of Mt. Wilson (near Pasadena, California), Edwin Hubble undertook the task of trying to measure the distance to M31. Hubble’s method was based on the absolute and apparent luminosity properties of stars known as Cepheid variables … properties that could be quantified and, in turn, be fed into a distance formula for determining, within limits (up to about 163 million light years), how far away a given cosmic object might be.

      Hubble’s calculations were off by a factor of 2. That is, he calculated the distance to M31 to be twice as close as it actually was … a mistake that was corrected in the 1950s.

      Nevertheless, despite the error in calculation, the distance to M31 (which is now known to be 2.5 million light years away) was much, much farther from Earth than the most distant known stars that existed in the Milky Way. M31 seemed to exist in a realm beyond the confines of the Milky Way galaxy and, subsequently, came to be known as the Andromeda galaxy.

      Hubble measured the distance to a number of other nebulae that could be viewed through the telescope at Mt. Wilson. Some of them were calculated to be hundreds of thousands of times more distant than the most distant stars in the Milky Way galaxy.

      The Milky Way galaxy was not the only inhabitant of the universe. It could no longer be considered to encompass the sum total of physical reality.

      Hubble also noticed another relationship between the properties of the cosmic objects he was studying and their distance from Earth. If one examined the emission or absorption lines in the spectra of the light given off by those heavenly bodies, there appeared to be an inverse relationship involving luminosity and distance.

      More specifically, the dimness of those objects tended to be correlated with measurements indicating that such objects were quite distant from Earth. That is, the greater the degree of dimness, the more distant those objects were measured to be.

      Dimness also seemed to be related to a shift in the frequency of the spectral lines associated with such sources. This transition toward a lower frequency of the spectrum is known as a redshift.

      However, the spectral properties of cosmic objects did not always involve shifts toward the red end of the spectrum. For instance, M31, or the Andromeda galaxy, exhibited a blue shift (i.e., toward the blue end of the spectrum) in the absorption/emission properties of its light.

      Nonetheless, by 1925, the predominant tendency displayed in the spectral properties of cosmic object studied by Hubble involved redshifts, rather than blueshifts. Four years later, in 1929, Hubble proposed a law that governed the relationship between distance and redshift.

      The law-like relationship was linear in nature. This meant that the dimmer a cosmic object appeared to be, then the more the spectral properties displayed by such objects tended to be shifted in the direction of the red end of the spectrum. As a result, redshifts became associated with the idea of distance.

      Furthermore, spectral redshifts also became associated with the notion of recessional velocity … that is, the speed with which some given cosmic object appears to be receding from Earth. The greater the degree of redshift, then, the greater the recessional velocity of that object relative to Earth was considered to be.

      The idea of recessional velocity was tied to the Doppler effect. In other words, just as sound waves exhibit higher and lower frequencies as they travel, respectively, toward us and away from us, so too, the shift toward the red end of the spectrum that was exhibited by the spectral properties of light coming from cosmic objects was interpreted to mean that the source emanating such light was moving away from Earth, just as a shift toward the blue end of the spectrum was interpreted to mean that the source generating such light was moving toward the Earth.

      Notwithstanding the fact that the very first cosmic object studied by Hubble – namely, M31 or the Andromeda galaxy – exhibited a blueshift in its spectral properties, astronomers began to interpret Hubble’s data as indicating that the universe was expanding. This seemed to validate Friedman’s earlier understanding of Einstein’s field equations in which the former individual (i.e., Freidman) believed that Einstein’s equations indicated that the universe was expanding despite Einstein’s resistance to such a possibility.

      Yet, if the universe was expanding, then, why – according to its spectral properties – did M31 seem to be speeding toward Earth? Although most of the cosmic objects studied by Hubble displayed a redshift in its spectral properties, this was not always the case, and, so, what was one to make of a universe that contained objects that did not seem to be caught up in the general move away from Earth? 

      How were spectral redshifts and blueshifts to be reconciled with one another? Or, stated in a slightly different way, what was the significance of spectral blueshifts in a universe that seemed to be dominated by cosmic objects displaying spectral redshifts?

      The network of interconnecting relationships underlying the notion of an expanding universe appeared to consist of: Dimness, distance, redshift, and recessional velocity. Yet, maybe, in some instances, dimness was not necessarily a marker for distance but, instead, indicated one was dealing with something that was merely dim and, for whatever reason, either giving off limited luminosity or displaying a form of luminosity that was, in some way, filtered during its journey to Earth.

      Alternatively, maybe redshifts didn’t necessarily always indicate that the sources of such spectral wavelength shifts were moving away from Earth. Maybe there were other, possible interpretations for the significance of redshifts … an issue that will be explored in Chapter 2.

      Let’s assume for the moment, however, that the dimness of cosmic objects is a sign of distance and that redshifts signify recessional velocity. Given such assumptions, how did things proceed within astronomy from that point?

      Enter Georges Lemaître. Before becoming a professor of astrophysics, Lemaître was a Roman Catholic

      priest.

      Lemaître was interested in science. Moreover, following in the footsteps of many natural philosophers that preceded him, Lemaître saw nature as an active function of God’s presence and, therefore, the pursuit of science was something that he believed was eminently reconcilable with his spiritual perspective.

      His scientific training was rigorous. He received his doctorate from MIT.

      Prior to receiving his doctorate, he worked in England with Arthur Eddington who initiated Lemaître into the disciplines of astronomy and cosmology. Lemaître followed up on his University of Cambridge studies by working with Harlow Shapley, a well-known astronomer, at the Harvard College Observatory.

      Lemaître returned to Belgium in 1925. He became a part-time lecturer at the Catholic Universe of Leuven.

      In 1927 he wrote an article that appeared in the Annals of the Scientific Society of Brussels. The paper gave expression to a theory concerning the idea of an expanding universe.

      Edwin Hubble -- who is often cited as the first scientist to propose the idea of an expanding universe in 1929 -- was beaten to the punch by Lemaître’s 1927 paper. However, as far as the notion of an expanding universe is concerned, perhaps, ultimate priority should be given to the previously mentioned Alexander Friedman who, in 1922, had derived solutions from Einstein’s general relativity field equations indicating that the universe was expanding.

      Issues of priority aside, Lemaître’s foregoing article was written for a publication that did not receive much attention in the world of astronomy beyond the borders of Belgium. Consequently, his ideas about an expanding universe went largely unnoticed.

      Four years later in 1931, Lemaître – with assistance from his former mentor, Arthur Eddington – translated his 1927 article into English. Einstein became aware of Lemaître’s ideas concerning an expanding universe and indicated to Lemaître that while the latter’s calculations were acceptable Lemaître’s physics (i.e., the notion of an expanding universe) were atrocious.

      As noted previously in this chapter, Einstein had rejected Friedman’s similar ideas involving the notion of an expanding universe nearly a decade earlier. Apparently, Einstein saw nothing in the work of Lemaître that changed his mind with respect to the tenability of a static or steady universe.

      Friedman’s work was largely mathematical in nature. Einstein did not accept the former individual’s solutions to the field equations of general relativity.

      Lemaître’s treatment of the expanding universe idea involved more than a mathematical reworking of Einstein’s field equations. It was a theory in astronomy that attempted to make sense of, among other things, the behavior of nebulae, and Eddington felt that Lemaître’s idea concerning an expanding universe resolved a number of problems in cosmology.

      After Lemaître’s ideas were translated into English, he was invited to speak on them in London. Lemaître took that opportunity to introduce the notion that the universe had expanded from some initial point that he referred to as a Primeval Atom.

      Later on, Lemaître described his Primeval Atom as a sort of Cosmic Egg that began to explosively unpack its potential at the moment of Creation. As far as Lemaître was concerned, such terms were just alternative ways of giving expression to the idea of an expanding universe.

      Although Eddington initially had supported Lemaître’s idea of an expanding universe, he was less enthusiastic about the notion of a Primeval Atom or Cosmic Egg that gave rise to an expanding universe that exploded onto the scene at the moment of Creation. Einstein, on the other hand, believed that Lemaître’s physics were wrong and, consequently, that the idea of an expanding universe could not be demonstrated.

      Fred Hoyle was a respected British astronomer. In the 1940s, Hoyle developed -- along with Thomas Gold, and Hermann Bondi -- a steady state theory of the universe. Among other things, the theory being alluded to posited that the universe had no beginning and no end.

      During an episode of Hoyle’s BBC radio program, The Nature of the Universe, he critiqued Lemaître-like theories. At one point in the program, he used the term Big Bang to dismissively refer to such ideas.

      While Lemaître and Hubble were developing their respective theories concerning the idea of an expanding universe, Alexander Friedman was continuing to develop and disseminate his own ideas in Russia with respect to the notion of an expanding universe. Among his students was a brilliant individual, Georgy Gamov.

      Friedman died in 1925 from typhus … just three years after deriving his solutions to Einstein’s field equations. Nevertheless, Friedman still managed to spend considerable time with Gamov, initiating the latter individual into, among other things, Friedman’s cosmological take on Einstein’s theory of gravity.

      In 1934, Gamov moved to the United States and became known as George Gamow. Subsequently, he accepted a faculty position at George Washington University.

      While Gamow explored a variety of areas in science – including radioactive decay, the formation of stars, and nucleosynthesis (the generation of atoms that are more complex than hydrogen) – he also was an advocate for, and contributor to the development of, the theory of Big Bang cosmology.  Gamow re-envisioned Lemaître’s Creation-based, expanding universe and presented those ideas in purely physical terms (that is, without any mention of Creation or a Creator).

      Gamow believed that in the early universe, radiation predominated over matter. As a result, things were hot.

      Using quantum mechanics, general relativity theory, and a variety of other discoveries of 20th century physics, Gamow worked out a temporal sequence in which the universe proceeded from a hot, radiation-dominated realm through to, over time, the development of stars and galaxies in an expanding universe. In addition, Gamow advanced theories about how -- during the aforementioned period of expanding development -- different atomic elements (hydrogen and beyond) would be produced in the hot, thick particle soup of the Big Bang through a process that is known as nucleosynthesis.

      Gamow put a quantitative face on the development of the universe. For example, he calculated at what point the density of matter and radiation would equalize once the Big Bang took place (and, remember, Gamow maintained that in the beginning, radiation dominated over matter).

      In addition, Gamow made calculations concerning the density of matter that would be necessary to set the forces of nucleosynthesis in motion. This led, in turn, to theoretical calculations concerning the mass, composition, and size of early galaxies.

      As well, Gamow produced several quantitative predictions for the temperature of the radiation that would remain in the background as remnants of the initial Big Bang and the subsequent early expansion of the universe. This was the first prediction concerning the temperature value for what, today, is referred to as Cosmic Background Radiation.

      Not everything that Gamow calculated and theorized has stood the test of time. Nevertheless, his work – along with the contributions of individuals such as Ralph Alpher (a former graduate student of Gamow’s), Robert Herman, and Hans Bethe – shaped much of the staging area from which ensuing theories of Big Bang cosmology have been launched. 

      Up until the time of Gamow’s work -- and despite the contributions of individuals such as Alexander Freidman, Georges Lemaître, and Edwin Hubble -- many scientists still seemed to be inclined toward the static or steady state-like universe of Albert Einstein and Fred Hoyle. After Gamow introduced his ideas, an increasing number of scientists began to move in the direction of a Big Bang theory of some kind.

      Perhaps one of the reasons for the foregoing shift in beliefs toward Big Bang cosmologies and away from Steady State cosmologies had to do with what Gamow’ work provided that no other astronomer prior to him had been able to offer … except in limited ways. More specifically, Gamow had put forth a plausible narrative concerning how the universe might have made the transition from: An early hot, radiation-dominated set of conditions, to: A universe dominated by matter, gravity, and the accretion of materials that led to the formation of stars and galaxies.

      Gamow’s ideas reflected, and were rooted in, the work of, among others, Isaac Newton, Max Planck, Albert Einstein, Arnold Sommerfeld (fine structure constant), Alexander Friedman, Georges Lemaître, and Edwin Hubble. Yet, at the same time, Gamow pointed to possibilities that both united and extended the earlier work within the context of a coherent, scientific narrative that explained – within certain limits -- how such a cosmology was consistent with, and might account for, a great deal of empirical data.

      Eight years after Gamow passed away in 1968, Steven Weinberg wrote a book entitled: The First Three Minutes: A Modern View of the Origin of the Universe. The book was an expanded version of a talk that Weinberg had given in 1973 in conjunction with the dedication of Harvard’s Undergraduate Science Center.

      The book was written six years before Weinberg received a Nobel Prize in physics – along with Abdus Salam and Sheldon Glashow – for work on the electro-weak theory of quantum dynamics. Therefore, when the foregoing book was published, Weinberg was not a household name, but he was still a first-rate physicist.

      Weinberg professional interests were mostly directed toward particle physicist. He was not an astronomer or cosmologist.

      Nonetheless, particle physics played a substantial role in Big Bang Cosmology. Consequently, Weinberg used his expertise in the former area to deliver a relatively popularized treatment of the latter topic that is still considered by many individuals to be relevant nearly forty years later.

      The First Three Minutes took off where Gamow left off. Weinberg’s book was an updated and expanded version of the Big Bang cosmology that had been developed by Gamow, and others, through the 1950s and 1960s.

      During the Introduction to his book, Weinberg spoke about the initial explosion that marked the advent of the universe. He described that event as unlike the normal sort of explosion that emanates outward from a determinate center.

      Instead, the Big Bang supposedly happened simultaneously everywhere in space. As this occurred, each particle was sent flying away from every other particle.

      In addition, Weinberg notes that such an omnipresent explosion could have taken place in space that was infinite in nature or might have taken place in space that curved back on itself and, therefore, was finite. He did not feel the nature of space – that is, whether it was infinite or finite – really affected what transpired during the first three minutes.

      Since the subtitle to his book is: A Modern View of the Origin of the Universe, one might note in passing that such a description is somewhat misleading. For example, in the aforementioned introductory remarks, he indicates that the space in which the Big Bang took place already existed, and, as well, he indicates that during the initial explosion, particles were flung away from one another.

      Consequently, both space (whether finite or infinite in nature) and particles existed prior to the Big Bang. Moreover, some mechanism or force or form of energy must have existed that resulted in an explosion that occurred everywhere in space.

      Weinberg’s book does not explain the origins of space, particles, or the capacity that underwrote a universal explosion. Instead, he assumes the existence of such things and proceeds forward from that presumptive starting point in order to try to account for how the universe unfolded after the aforementioned initial explosion.

      One also should note that Weinberg’s starting point is quite different from that of Georges Lemaître. The latter individual indicated that some sort of Primeval Atom or Cosmic Egg existed prior to the Big Bang, and it is that ‘Atom’ or ‘Egg’ which exploded, whereas Steven Weinberg claims that space exploded everywhere at once, and, as a result, there was no center (i.e., Atom or Egg) involved in such an explosion.

      Neither Lemaître nor Weinberg can account for the origins of their respective starting points. Consequently, both versions of the Big Bang are enveloped by various clouds of unknowing.

      Although many individuals refer to the Big Bang as if it were a monolithic theory, the fact of the matter is there are at least two editions of that theory. One edition of the theory follows Lemaître -- although the terms: Primeval Atom and Cosmic Egg have been replaced by the notion of a singularity -- while the other version of the Big Bang theory follows George Gamow and speaks in terms of a hot plasma, of some kind, that existed at the beginning of things.

      Whether one is talking in terms of singularities or hot plasmas, the nature of that starting point is enveloped in mystery. In addition, the nature of the explosion process is also unknown irrespective of whether one is talking about singularities or hot plasmas.

      The term that is used today to allude to that explosion process is: symmetry breaking. Something happens that pushes the universe out of a state of equilibrium (symmetry condition) and into an event that either rips a singularity apart or causes particles to fly away from one another everywhere in space simultaneously.

      According to Steven Weinberg, in the first one-hundredth of a second during which the Big Bang was taking place, the temperature of the universe was somewhere in the vicinity of 10¹¹ degrees Centigrade … a temperature that is considered to be far greater than the temperatures believed to exist in the center of the hottest stars. Since Weinberg maintains that space exploded everywhere during the Big Bang, one has a difficult time trying to explain how such elevated temperatures might be possible even in a confined area, let alone everywhere at once … and, if space is infinite in nature, the foregoing question concerning what made those sorts of extreme temperature possible becomes even more problematic.

      The 10¹¹-Centigrade figure is not an empirical fact. It is a starting assumption … it is the sort of figure with which one must begin if one hopes to be able to offer a plausible account of what might have happened during the next two minutes, 59 and 99/100-plus seconds.

      Weinberg believes that among the many particles that populated the hot plasma existing at the beginning of the Big Bang there were four particles that existed in abundant numbers. These quantum objects were: electrons, positrons, neutrinos, and photons.

      The foregoing electrons and positrons being described by Weinberg were

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