A Deeper Insight Into The Big Bang [#2]
This post explores the origin of the Universe in more depth.
The first law of thermodynamics is a version of the law of conservation of energy, adapted for closed thermodynamic systems, such as the Universe. When applied to our cosmos, it asserts that the amount of energy in the Universe is constant and cannot change. Energy may only transform, but can neither be created nor destroyed. [Cit. 1]
According to the Big Bang model, an explosion (the Big Bang) converted a massive amount of energy into matter and spacetime, which then expanded at an exponential rate. But how was the original mass of energy that caused the Big Bang formed? The first law of thermodynamics states that energy cannot be created, so how did the Universe come from 'nothing'?
The first law of thermodynamics has a loophole. The law does allow for energy to be created and destroyed, but it must be compensated. This loophole allows any amount of energy to be borrowed on the condition
that it will be returned.
I will now introduce you to Quantum foam, an interesting phenomenon which relies on this loophole, before linking it to the Big Bang.
'Quantum foam' is observed at the subatomic, quantum particle level. It is caused by a multitude of quantum particles coming into existence from borrowed energy, and then running into their antiparticle counterparts which were created concurrently with them, and then returning that borrowed energy in a miniature explosion.
The underlying structure for borrowing and returning energy is explained by quantum field theory, a conceptual framework for contemporary elementary particle physics, extending quantum mechanics to deal with both quantum particles and quantum fields.
Quantum field theory describes the state of the quantum field, the stage for which the event of quantum foam occurs. It proves that the quantum field is never static, but is ever-changing (due to quantum foam). It also describes the way quantum particles interact with each other and spacetime. [Cit. 2]
According to quantum field theory, gravitational energy is negative energy and matter is positive energy. Since gravity is a property of every particle of matter, the positive energy in the form of matter is balanced by its negative energy in the form of gravity. This allowed for matter to be created during the Big Bang since the positive energy in the form of matter was balanced by the negative energy in the form of gravity. But gravity is no longer being created along with matter, so when matter is being created in the quantum foam, the negative energy is manifested instead in the form of anti-particles, which moves towards positive matter and both particles are annihilated, causing no overall creation or destruction of matter and energy.
CITATIONS:
Cit. 1: The Feynman Lectures on Physics (hosted by Caltech, the California Institute of Technology).
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