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Asked by ebygum to Adam, Geoff, Rob, Sheila, Suzie on 16 Mar 2011 in Categories: Space.
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Suzie Sheehy answered on 16 Mar 2011:
What a question! I’m assuming from your question that you’ve read alot about this already, so I’m going to assume quite a bit of knowledge, but do let me know if I say anything you don’t understand!!
I’ve studied things like this when I was studying quantum field theory, but I”m by no means an expert in it. The “Ekpyrotic” universe is thought to have been created from a collision between “branes” or “sheets” of the universe. It’s a different theory from the inflationary model of the Universe.
It is an attractive theory because it does away with needing to have a singularity at the start of the universe, which is an idea that many scientists have a problem with because all our knowledge of physics really breaks down when you approach a singularity…
I don’t really have an opinion either way other than it’s an interesting piece of theory… I tend to be more convinced by experimental evidence!
If we wanted to observe it, according to the papers on it we’d be able to tell from the polarization of the cosmic microwave background radiation (I wonder if we’ve looked at this yet?) or from the gravitational wave spectrum. But we need to detect gravitational waves first…
I hope that answers your question
By the way – my fave physicist is Richard Feynman as well!
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Sheila Kanani answered on 16 Mar 2011:
Wow you know more than I do already! I had to google that word 😀
Well I believe in the Big Bounce or a cyclic universe so I guess that sort of fits in with the ekpyrotic idea. I’m not sure what they mean about the universe starting with two branes though. Can you shed some light on this for me? 🙂 -
Adam Tuff answered on 16 Mar 2011:
Wow! An Ekpyrotic universe really starts wandering into the world of string theory now! It’s certainly an interesting idea that these “branes” could colide and start a universe – I think it could well be energetically possible – but I really can’t picture what seven dimensions looks in my mind which is really where my doubts come in. I don’t know a lot about string theory, but it certainly does provide a cause for the big bang itself! Really good question!
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Geoff McBride answered on 16 Mar 2011:
There is much debate about the ‘Standard Model’ and the Big Bang. I find Brane Theory very interesting and the concept of a ‘Multiversity’ is attractive if we look at basic experiments such as ‘Young’s Slit’ experiment. This not my field of study of cause but I find it fascinating.
Comments
ebygum commented on :
Thanks!
Sheila commented on :
Thanks Suzie, that has helped my understanding of branes!
Suzie commented on :
A “brane” is like a higher-dimensional sheet of the universe. Imagine that we are on one sheet and there are various sheets of universy-type-stuff flying around and colliding with each other… then if they collide the theory is that it creates a “big bang”. It’s hard to visualise without hand-waving!
ebygum commented on :
What do the other branes contain? Are they other universes or just very large masses?
waveicle commented on :
does it mean that there are infinite number of branes parallel to each other? with infinite number of bigbangs?
Suzie commented on :
They aren’t really “made” of anything. If you’ve heard of string theory, a brane is like a 2D version of a string… They are higher-dimensional mathematical concepts that don’t “contain” anything until they interact. I’m by no means an expert on this by the way… this stuff is really very high level theory!
waveicle commented on :
@Adam, I read an article by Max Tegmark called parallel universes. In which he states that we cant picture extra dimensions because our brain are incapable to imagine extra dimension because our brain can only analyse 3 physical dimensions.