Science catches up to the New Sun

Jordon Flato · 13 Dec 2008, 00:03 · from 2008-December.txt.gz

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From: jordonflato at gmail.com (Jordon Flato)
Date: Fri, 12 Dec 2008 16:03:18 -0800
Subject: (urth) Science catches up to the New Sun
Message-ID: <273409710812121603t299e1fa7ie7045e06c4a43bae at mail.gmail.com>

I'm pretty sure this isn't the first time this theory has been bandied
about, but this sounds pretty much like the cosmology of the New Sun, except
it's been posited as reality:

Most cosmologists believe that our universe emerged from a singularity
during the Big Bang. But now physicists are exploring the possibility that
our universe was created by the death of an earlier universe.

Martin Bojowald and Abhat Ashtekar began researching their theory of loop
quantum cosmology (LQC), an approach to cosmology that combine's Einstein's
theory of gravity with quantum mechanics. They have modeled the birth of our
universe, exploring the mathematics of universe as it contracts back toward
its point of origin.

Bojowald's major realisation was that unlike general relativity, the physics
of LQC did not break down at the big bang. Cosmologists dread the
singularity because at this point gravity becomes infinite, along with the
temperature and density of the universe. As its equations cannot cope with
such infinities, general relativity fails to describe what happens at the
big bang. Bojowald's work showed how to avoid the hated singularity, albeit
mathematically. "I was very impressed by it," says Ashtekar, "and still am."

The researchers have found that when applying LQC, the universe does not
revert back to a singularity as it contracts. Instead of seeing a big bang,
the models indicate that the universe experienced a big bounce, with a
predecessor universe contracting as it ended and then reemerging as our new,
expanding universe. If the theory proves correct, it could mean that our
universe does not have a finite beginning and end but is, instead, part of a
chain of universes that expand and then contract to give way to a brand new
universe.
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