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新研究稱宇宙並非誕生於大爆炸 而是大反彈
2014/07/24 02:51:42瀏覽360|回應0|推薦0

The Big Bang’s Big Problem Bedevils Researchers

Julie Borg | WORLD News Service | Tuesday, July 22, 2014
The Big Bang’s Big Problem Bedevils Researchers

The Big Bang’s Big Problem Bedevils Researchers


If the Big Bang theory is correct, our universe should not exist, according to research published last month by physicists at King’s College in London. The shocking discovery implies the universe should have collapsed less than a second after it exploded into existence.
 
Christians are divided on whether or not the Big Bang theory fits with the biblical description of creation. But the theory has been an enormous concession for many secular scientists. For years they clung to belief in a universe that was steady and that had existed indefinitely. But recent advances in physics have forced most scientists to admit that the universe had a beginning and that it has been expanding ever since by a process dubbed cosmic inflation. 
 
For Christians, the universe having a beginning point is no new discovery. These scientists were upstaged more than 2,500 years ago by Job, Moses, David, and other Bible authors, said Hugh Ross, astrophysicist and founder of the Reasons to Believe ministry. The Bible confirms explicitly and repeatedly the two most fundamental properties of the Big Bang theory: There was a definite, finite beginning and the universe is undergoing continual expansion. For example, said Ross, in Isaiah 42:5 both properties were declared: “This is what the Lord says—He who created the heavens and stretched them out.”
 
The researchers of the current study combined data from observations made possible by the BICEP2 telescope with new information developed from the discovery of the Higgs Boson, a particle thought to be responsible for the mass of everything that exists. The scientists said the universe lies in a valley of the Higgs Field, an energy field that exists throughout the universe. It contains the Higgs Boson particle and sets the limits on its behavior. The universe is prevented from entering an even deeper valley by a large energy barrier that can be thought of as a giant hill separating the two valleys. But, according to the Big Bang theory, the researchers say cosmic inflation would have kicked the universe over the hill and into the deeper valley where it would have collapsed in less than a second. 
 
Bewildered secular scientists are scratching their heads at the new findings. “We have to extend our theories to explain why this didn’t happen,” said Robert Hogan, a doctoral student at King’s College who led the study, in the Royal Astronomical Society. The researchers conclude there must be some process yet undiscovered.
 
Someday the scientists seeking explanations of why there was no big collapse immediately after the universe came into existence may well have to contend with the concept of a creator. 
 
“For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream,” said Robert Jastrow, founder of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies and a self-proclaimed agnostic. “He has scaled the mountains of ignorance, he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.” 
 
 
Courtesy: WORLD News Service
 
Publication date: July 22, 2014

Higgs Boson, BICEP2 Results Could Point to New Physics beyond Standard Model

Jun 25, 2014 by Sci-News.com

Based on the discovery of the Higgs boson and the recent results from the BICEP2 collaboration, UK physicists have made a surprising prediction: the Universe should not have lasted for more than a second.

The tiny temperature fluctuations of the cosmic microwave background, shown here as color, trace primordial density fluctuations in the early universe that seed the later growth of galaxies. Gravitational waves from inflation are expected to produce much a fainter pattern that includes twisting B-mode polarization, consistent with the B-mode polarization pattern observed by BICEP2, which is shown here as black lines. The line segments show the polarization strength and orientation at different spots on the sky. Image credit: BICEP2 Collaboration.

The tiny temperature fluctuations of the cosmic microwave background, shown here as color, trace primordial density fluctuations in the early universe that seed the later growth of galaxies. Gravitational waves from inflation are expected to produce much a fainter pattern that includes twisting B-mode polarization, consistent with the B-mode polarization pattern observed by BICEP2, which is shown here as black lines. The line segments show the polarization strength and orientation at different spots on the sky. Image credit: BICEP2 Collaboration.

After the Universe began in the Big Bang, it is thought to have gone through an explosive period of growth known as cosmic inflation.

Although the details of this process are not yet fully understood, scientists have been able to make predictions of how this would affect the modern Universe.

In a 2014 study, BICEP2 collaboration claimed to have found the first direct evidence that gravitational waves rippled through the infant Universe during cosmic inflation. If true, this result is a major advance in our understanding of cosmology and a confirmation of the inflation theory, but they have proven controversial and are not yet fully accepted by cosmologists.

In the new study, Robert Hogan and Dr Malcolm Fairbairn, both from King’s College London in UK, have investigated what the BICEP2 results mean for the stability of the Universe.

They combined the results with recent advances in particle physics. Measurements of the recently detected Higgs boson have allowed physicists to show that our Universe sits in a valley of the so-called Higgs Field, which describes the way that other particles have mass. However, there is a different valley which is much deeper, but our Universe is preventing from falling into it by a large energy barrier.

The problem is that the BICEP2 results predict that the Universe would have received large ‘kicks’ during the cosmic inflation phase, pushing it into the other valley of the Higgs Field within a fraction of a second.

If that had happened, the Universe would have quickly collapsed in a Big Crunch.

“This is an unacceptable prediction of the theory because if this had happened we wouldn’t be around to discuss it,” said Mr Hogan, who is the second author of the paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters.

“Perhaps the BICEP2 results contain an error. If not, there must be some other – as yet unknown – process which prevented the Universe from collapsing.”

“If BICEP2 is shown to be correct, it tells us that there has to be interesting new particle physics beyond the Standard Model,” Mr Hogan said.

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