paradoxparadigm7
Well-Known Member
I recently watched a youtube lecture on the two theories through Vanderbuilt University. It's lengthy but if anyone is interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcxptIJS7kQ
I searched the forum and there hasn't been much discussed except for this thread: http://www.intpforum.com/showthread.php?t=17289&highlight=cyclical+universe
For those who aren't as familiar with the Cyclic Universe, this is the abstract from a scholarly article:
The cyclic theory of the universe is a radical alternative to the standard big bang/inflationary scenario
that offers a new approach for resolving the homogeneity, isotropy, and flatness problems and generating
a nearly scale-invariant spectrum of fluctuations. The original formulation of the cyclic model was based
on the picture suggested by M-theory in which the observable universe lies on a brane separated by a
small gap along an extra dimension from a second brane. The cyclic model proposes that the big bang is a
collision between branes that occurs at regular intervals; that each bang creates hot matter and radiation
and triggers an epoch of expansion, cooling and structure formation; that there is an interbrane force
responsible for drawing the branes together whose potential energy acts like dark energy when the branes
are far apart; and that each cycle ends with the contraction of the extra dimension and a collision between
branes – a new big bang – that initiates the next cycle. In more recent formulations, the cyclic model
is realized with ordinary quantum field theory without introducing branes or extra dimensions. The
key innovation common to all these models is the ekpyrotic phase, the period of ultra-slow contraction
preceding the big bang. It is the ekpyrotic phase, rather than inflation, that is responsible for explaining
the smoothness, flatness and large scale structure of the universe. It is also the ekpyrotic phase that
generates the distinctive signatures in the spectrum of primordial gravitational waves and non-gaussian
density fluctuations that will be used to test the cyclic model in forthcoming experiments.
The article can be found here: http://www.physics.princeton.edu/~steinh/vaasrev.pdf
I'm not well versed in physics or cosmology but it's fascinating and I'd be interested to get more knowledgable people's perspective.
Anyone prefer one theory over the other? Reasons?
I searched the forum and there hasn't been much discussed except for this thread: http://www.intpforum.com/showthread.php?t=17289&highlight=cyclical+universe
For those who aren't as familiar with the Cyclic Universe, this is the abstract from a scholarly article:
The cyclic theory of the universe is a radical alternative to the standard big bang/inflationary scenario
that offers a new approach for resolving the homogeneity, isotropy, and flatness problems and generating
a nearly scale-invariant spectrum of fluctuations. The original formulation of the cyclic model was based
on the picture suggested by M-theory in which the observable universe lies on a brane separated by a
small gap along an extra dimension from a second brane. The cyclic model proposes that the big bang is a
collision between branes that occurs at regular intervals; that each bang creates hot matter and radiation
and triggers an epoch of expansion, cooling and structure formation; that there is an interbrane force
responsible for drawing the branes together whose potential energy acts like dark energy when the branes
are far apart; and that each cycle ends with the contraction of the extra dimension and a collision between
branes – a new big bang – that initiates the next cycle. In more recent formulations, the cyclic model
is realized with ordinary quantum field theory without introducing branes or extra dimensions. The
key innovation common to all these models is the ekpyrotic phase, the period of ultra-slow contraction
preceding the big bang. It is the ekpyrotic phase, rather than inflation, that is responsible for explaining
the smoothness, flatness and large scale structure of the universe. It is also the ekpyrotic phase that
generates the distinctive signatures in the spectrum of primordial gravitational waves and non-gaussian
density fluctuations that will be used to test the cyclic model in forthcoming experiments.
The article can be found here: http://www.physics.princeton.edu/~steinh/vaasrev.pdf
I'm not well versed in physics or cosmology but it's fascinating and I'd be interested to get more knowledgable people's perspective.
Anyone prefer one theory over the other? Reasons?