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| Observable Universe |
As already explained in an earlier post the Big Bang theory has serious flaws. It has not been able to make predictions that were later confirmed and is heavily based on free variables and arbitrary assumptions (inflation, mysterious force that expands the universe, dark energy etc.). As such it is useless as a scientific model and untenable as a valid theory about the past and future of the universe.
I have criticized the Big Bang in many occasions, but have not provided any alternative model yet. Of course admitting not to know something is better than claiming knowledge when only speculating, but the proponents of the Big Bang theory could claim that there is simply no alternative to their model, even if it is not perfect.
Therefore it is necessary to propose an alternative explanation for the state of our universe to undermine the monopoly that the Big Bang creationists have on cosmology.
The alternative model that I am going to describe in the following does not claim to be true, it is only a possibility and it explains at least as many phenomena as the common cosmological model, but requires far less arbitrary assumptions.
The only arbitrary assumption that I am going to make is that anti-particles are not stable. This is no new idea, because the Big Bang theory also requires this assumption to explain the obvious lack of antimatter in the universe. However the instability of anti-particles has not been experimentally proven yet.
Steady State Universe
The universe in this model is a steady state universe. This means it is infinite and has neither a beginning nor an end. It does not change its state over large scales. However it expands. Its expansion has been going on forever and will continue forever.
Vacuum Quantum Fluctuation
We know that the vacuum is not just empty. Heisenberg's uncertainty principle requires a certain vacuum energy. This vacuum energy is expressed in the spontaneous creation of virtual particle pairs that immediately annihilate each other by the particle colliding with its anti-particle. This is no speculation yet, this is a commonly accepted aspect of quantum physics.
Asymmetry of Particle and Antiparticle
Now we make our only arbitrary assumption, the asymmetry of the particle-antiparticle pair. we assume that antiparticles are instable and can decay spontaneously with a probability, which is extremely small but > 0. This is based on the observation that we can only see matter, but no antimatter in the universe.
If the antiparticle decays then the particle will have nothing to collide and annihilate itself. This means a particle has come into existence out of nothing. This is a violation of the First Law of Thermodynamics about the conservation of energy, but we will get to this later.
We have now established a mechanism that creates small amounts of matter out of the vacuum.
Gravity Bending Space-Time
Matter has gravity and according to General Relativity gravity bends space-time. When space bends around matter, then there is more space than in a flat continuum without matter. This means the distances inside the bent space are larger than in a flat space. Therefore by creating matter, we have also created space. It means we have stretched the space around our new matter particle. Essentially the space around the particle has expanded.
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| Effect of matter on space-time |
Space Expands
Now space-time has the tendency to prefer flatness. Bending space requires energy, which is essentially in the matter of the particle. However when the space stretches out it can conserve its flatness over a large scale. This is the force that expands space. The force that expands the universe is therefore the result of the permanently created particles due to quantum fluctuation. It is not much but over large distances like a few million light years it is a significant expansion. We have now explained why the universe expands.
Conservation of Energy
With our supposed mechanism of creating particles out of vacuum we have violated the First Law of Thermodynamics, which states that the energy of a closed system is always conserved. It can neither increase nor diminish.
However our universe is infinite. The total energy of the universe is therefore also infinite.And an infinite value +1 is still an infinite value. The law of the conservation of energy cannot be applied to an infinite universe. Not the total amount of energy in the universe can be conserved, but only the density of energy, this means the amount of energy per volume. This is why an increase of matter causes an increase of space. If we create matter, we have to create space in order for the energy density of the universe to remain the same over a large scale. This is another view at the mechanism that causes the expansion of the universe. It is a result from the conservation of the energy density.
It means we have to changethe formulation of the First Law of Thermodynamics, from energy to energy density, so it can fit an infinite universe.
Entropy
According to the Second Law of Thermodynamics the entropy of a system can only increase. However this is in contradiction to our observation that the entropy of the universe is not at its maximum value. This is why cosmologists assumed that the age of the universe cannot be infinite. However they overlooked the main problem that remains even in a universe that has a beginning: How did the universe get into this highly ordered state at its beginning? This is another flaw of the Big Bang theory that cannot be explained by common cosmological models.
However our model of permanent creation of new particles has solved the problem. The universe permanently creates new matter in a highly ordered state, this means with little entropy. The total entropy of the universe does therefore not increase. It remains always the same. The increase of entropy is a local phenomenon that is compensated by the permanent creation of new low entropy matter.
Horizon Problem
One argument against an infinite universe is that in an infinite universe we would look at a star no matter in which direction we look, since the number of stars is infinite.Therefore the sky would not be black but white. Light would hit us from everywhere in the universe. And even interstellar nebulae could not block the light because the permanent radiation they would be exposed to would make them emitting light themselves.
However this argument is false. Because the sky is not black. In a certain way it is white, better said it is red due to the red-shift.
The farther a light source is away from us the more it gets red-shifted due to the Doppler effect of the expansion of the universe. Fact is that we see light in every direction we look. It is the so called Cosmic Background Radiation. It is light that is red-shifted to a wavelength that is equivalent to IR radiation of 2.7 K.
Big Bang creationists believe to see the Big Bang itself in this radiation, but it is a far more elegant explanation to say that it is the light from the infinity of stars in the universe. The steady state model predicts this radiation. It's wavelength is equivalent with the energy density of light in the universe.
Isotropy of the Universe
The Big Bang theory had the problem to explain why the universe was so isotropic. This means it looked the same in every direction. Even two spots that were so far away from each other that they could never have influenced each other since light could not have traveled far enough since the Big Bang. This was explained by the phenomenon of inflation, this means space was thought to have expanded with a peed faster than light. Also these scientists were aware of Einstein's theory of Relativity that does not allow speeds faster than light,n they argued that this law does not apply to space itself. Objects can not travel faster than light, but the space between them can and it would somehow carry these objects with it.
Apparently these Big Bang creationists did not understand what Relativity is about. Space is not some kind of cosmic ether that can carry objects with it that float within it. The speed of light is the maximum velocity and there are no exceptions to it. Period. Speed is defined as the increase of distance between two objects. There is no absolute coordinate system of space that can be moved around or whose scale can be inflated. The speed of light is the maximum speed in which two objects can move away from each other. The space between them is not some kind of substance. It is nothing than a measurement of the distance of these two objects.
In an infinite universe the problem of the isotropy of the universe does not even arise. Only a flawed fabrication like the Big Bang theory can create such a problem.
Apparent Diameter of the Universe
The distance in which we can look in either direction of the universe appears limited. The common explanation is that the universe is only 13.7 billion years old. So we can only see light that has traveled less than this time.Objects farther away are beyond our horizon. This leads to the strange phenomenon that objects are disappearing from our horizon, because some objects are so far away from us that they will move away faster than light due to the expansion of the universe.
Again the Big Bang creationists argue with the absurd concept of faster than light movement. But this is not possible.
Even our steady state model assumes an expansion of the universe. And this means that objects farther away are moving faster away from us. However due to the Theory of relativity, they will never reach the speed of light. The Lorentz length contraction prevents this. Distant space appears contracted from our point of view due to Relativity. So the speed in which distant objects move away from us will never exceed light speed. This causes the effect of a finite horizon although the universe is infinite of course. However space in this distance appears compressed together until the Lorentz contraction becomes infinite. This means the infinity of space at this horizon is compressed to a value close to zero.
Summary
This was an overview of the steady state model of the universe, which is a valid alternative to the Big Bang theory. It needs less free variables and less supernatural phenomena like dark energy, mysterious forces that expand space, inflation faster than light or even a creator as the first cause of the Big Bang.
This theory has its flaws that would need further investigations and additional explanations, but it is still more elegant and simple than the Big Bang theory. It explains why the universe expands, why it is flat, why it has a horizon, the Cosmic Background Radiation, the low entropy, the large scale isotropy and extremely old globular clusters and ancient galaxies whose age is incompatible with the proposed age of the universe according to the Big Bang theory.
I don't claim that this model is true. I only claim that it is a possibility that deserves at least as much attention as the Big Bang theory that is falsely treated as a scientifically proven fact.
But maybe the whole question about cosmology and the beginning and end of the universe is simply absurd and irrelevant. For all that is important to us, which is not more than a billion years into the past and future, the universe has remained the same. Why do we need to question beyond this time at all?
There are more important scientific questions, questions that we have a chance to answer. It is better than wasting our time trying to answer questions that we cannot answer since we have insufficient data. Leave cosmology in the speculative realm of religion where it belongs to.
