The Ways in Which Universe Will End
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Cosmic Questions, Answers Pending
special section | cosmic questions, Answers pending Cosmic questions, answers pending throughout human history, great missions of mission reveal the exploration have been inspired by curiosity, : the desire to find out about unknown realms. secrets of the universe such missions have taken explorers across wide oceans and far below their surfaces, THE OBJECTIVE deep into jungles, high onto mountain peaks For millennia, people have turned to the heavens in search of clues to nature’s mysteries. truth seekers from ages past to the present day and over vast stretches of ice to the earth’s have found that the earth is not the center of the universe, that polar extremities. countless galaxies dot the abyss of space, that an unknown form of today’s greatest exploratory mission is no matter and dark forces are at work in shaping the cosmos. Yet despite longer earthbound. it’s the scientific quest to these heroic efforts, big cosmological questions remain unresolved: explain the cosmos, to answer the grandest What happened before the Big Bang? ............................... Page 22 questions about the universe as a whole. What is the universe made of? ......................................... Page 24 what is the identity, for example, of the Is there a theory of everything? ....................................... Page 26 Are space and time fundamental? .................................... Page 28 “dark” ingredients in the cosmic recipe, com- What is the fate of the universe? ..................................... Page 30 posing 95 percent of the -
Against Transhumanism the Delusion of Technological Transcendence
Edition 1.0 Against Transhumanism The delusion of technological transcendence Richard A.L. Jones Preface About the author Richard Jones has written extensively on both the technical aspects of nanotechnology and its social and ethical implications; his book “Soft Machines: nanotechnology and life” is published by OUP. He has a first degree and PhD in physics from the University of Cam- bridge; after postdoctoral work at Cornell University he has held positions as Lecturer in Physics at Cambridge University and Profes- sor of Physics at Sheffield. His work as an experimental physicist concentrates on the properties of biological and synthetic macro- molecules at interfaces; he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2006 and was awarded the Institute of Physics’s Tabor Medal for Nanoscience in 2009. His blog, on nanotechnology and science policy, can be found at Soft Machines. About this ebook This short work brings together some pieces that have previously appeared on my blog Soft Machines (chapters 2,4 and 5). Chapter 3 is adapted from an early draft of a piece that, in a much revised form, appeared in a special issue of the magazine IEEE Spectrum de- voted to the Singularity, under the title “Rupturing the Nanotech Rapture”. Version 1.0, 15 January 2016 The cover picture is The Ascension, by Benjamin West (1801). Source: Wikimedia Commons ii Transhumanism, technological change, and the Singularity 1 Rapid technological progress – progress that is obvious by setting off a runaway climate change event, that it will be no on the scale of an individual lifetime - is something we take longer compatible with civilization. -
The Cosmos - Before the Big Bang
From issue 2601 of New Scientist magazine, 28 April 2007, page 28-33 The cosmos - before the big bang How did the universe begin? The question is as old as humanity. Sure, we know that something like the big bang happened, but the theory doesn't explain some of the most important bits: why it happened, what the conditions were at the time, and other imponderables. Many cosmologists think our standard picture of how the universe came to be is woefully incomplete or even plain wrong, and they have been dreaming up a host of strange alternatives to explain how we got here. For the first time, they are trying to pin down the initial conditions of the big bang. In particular, they want to solve the long-standing mystery of how the universe could have begun in such a well- ordered state, as fundamental physics implies, when it seems utter chaos should have reigned. Several models have emerged that propose intriguing answers to this question. One says the universe began as a dense sea of black holes. Another says the big bang was sparked by a collision between two membranes floating in higher-dimensional space. Yet another says our universe was originally ripped from a larger entity, and that in turn countless baby universes will be born from the wreckage of ours. Crucially, each scenario makes unique and testable predictions; observations coming online in the next few years should help us to decide which, if any, is correct. Not that modelling the origin of the universe is anything new. -
Quantum Cosmology of the Big Rip: Within GR and in a Modified Theory of Gravity
universe Conference Report Quantum Cosmology of the Big Rip: Within GR and in a Modified Theory of Gravity Mariam Bouhmadi-López 1,2,*, Imanol Albarran 3,4 and Che-Yu Chen 5,6 1 Department of Theoretical Physics, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, P.O. Box 644, 48080 Bilbao, Spain 2 IKERBASQUE, Basque Foundation for Science, 48011 Bilbao, Spain 3 Departamento de Física, Universidade da Beira Interior, Rua Marquês D’Ávila e Bolama, 6201-001 Covilhã, Portugal; [email protected] 4 Centro de Matemática e Aplicações da Universidade da Beira Interior (CMA-UBI), Rua Marquês D’Ávila e Bolama, 6201-001 Covilhã, Portugal 5 Department of Physics, National Taiwan University, 10617 Taipei, Taiwan; [email protected] 6 LeCosPA, National Taiwan University, 10617 Taipei, Taiwan * Correspondence: [email protected] Academic Editors: Mariusz P. D ˛abrowski, Manuel Krämer and Vincenzo Salzano Received: 8 March 2017; Accepted: 12 April 2017; Published: 14 April 2017 Abstract: Quantum gravity is the theory that is expected to successfully describe systems that are under strong gravitational effects while at the same time being of an extreme quantum nature. When this principle is applied to the universe as a whole, we use what is commonly named “quantum cosmology”. So far we do not have a definite quantum theory of gravity or cosmology, but we have several promising approaches. Here we will review the application of the Wheeler–DeWitt formalism to the late-time universe, where it might face a Big Rip future singularity. The Big Rip singularity is the most virulent future dark energy singularity which can happen not only in general relativity but also in some modified theories of gravity. -
Analysis of Big Bounce in Einstein--Cartan Cosmology
Analysis of big bounce in Einstein{Cartan cosmology Jordan L. Cubero∗ and Nikodem J. Poplawski y Department of Mathematics and Physics, University of New Haven, 300 Boston Post Road, West Haven, CT 06516, USA We analyze the dynamics of a homogeneous and isotropic universe in the Einstein{Cartan theory of gravity. The spin of fermions produces spacetime torsion that prevents gravitational singularities and replaces the big bang with a nonsingular big bounce. We show that a closed universe exists only when a particular function of its scale factor and temperature is higher than some threshold value, whereas an open and a flat universes do not have such a restriction. We also show that a bounce of the scale factor is double: as the temperature increases and then decreases, the scale factor decreases, increases, decreases, and then increases. Introduction. The Einstein{Cartan (EC) theory of a size where the cosmological constant starts cosmic ac- gravity provides the simplest mechanism generating a celeration. This expansion also predicts the cosmic mi- nonsingular big bounce, without unknown parameters crowave background radiation parameters that are con- or hypothetical fields [1]. EC is the simplest and most sistent with the Planck 2015 observations [11], as was natural theory of gravity with torsion, in which the La- shown in [12]. grangian density for the gravitational field is proportional The spin-fluid description of matter is the particle ap- to the Ricci scalar, as in general relativity [2, 3]. The con- proximation of the multipole expansion of the integrated sistency of the conservation law for the total (orbital plus conservation laws in EC. -
The Anthropic Principle and Multiple Universe Hypotheses Oren Kreps
The Anthropic Principle and Multiple Universe Hypotheses Oren Kreps Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... 1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Section 1: The Fine-Tuning Argument and the Anthropic Principle .............................................. 3 The Improbability of a Life-Sustaining Universe ....................................................................... 3 Does God Explain Fine-Tuning? ................................................................................................ 4 The Anthropic Principle .............................................................................................................. 7 The Multiverse Premise ............................................................................................................ 10 Three Classes of Coincidence ................................................................................................... 13 Can The Existence of Sapient Life Justify the Multiverse? ...................................................... 16 How unlikely is fine-tuning? .................................................................................................... 17 Section 2: Multiverse Theories ..................................................................................................... 18 Many universes or all possible -
White-Hole Dark Matter and the Origin of Past Low-Entropy Francesca Vidotto, Carlo Rovelli
White-hole dark matter and the origin of past low-entropy Francesca Vidotto, Carlo Rovelli To cite this version: Francesca Vidotto, Carlo Rovelli. White-hole dark matter and the origin of past low-entropy. 2018. hal-01771746 HAL Id: hal-01771746 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01771746 Preprint submitted on 20 Apr 2018 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. 1 White-hole dark matter and the origin of past low-entropy Francesca Vidotto University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Departamento de F´ısicaTe´orica,Barrio Sarriena, 48940 Leioa, Spain [email protected] Carlo Rovelli CPT, Aix-Marseille Universit´e,Universit´ede Toulon, CNRS, case 907, Campus de Luminy, 13288 Marseille, France [email protected] Submission date April 1, 2018 Abstract Recent results on the end of black hole evaporation give new weight to the hypothesis that a component of dark matter could be formed by remnants of evaporated black holes: stable Planck-size white holes with a large interior. The expected lifetime of these objects is consistent with their production at reheating. But remnants could also be pre-big bang relics in a bounce cosmology, and this possibility has strong implications on the issue of the source of past low entropy: it could realise a perspectival interpretation of past low entropy. -
Big Rip Singularity in 5D Viscous Cosmology
Send Orders for Reprints to [email protected] The Open Astronomy Journal, 2014, 7, 7-11 7 Open Access Big Rip Singularity in 5D Viscous Cosmology 1,* 2 G.S. Khadekar and N.V. Gharad 1Department of Mathematics, Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University, Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Educational Campus, Amravati Road, Nagpur-440033, India 2Department of Physics, Jawaharlal Nehru College, Wadi, Nagpur-440023, India Abstract: Dark energy of phantom or quintessence nature with an equation of state parameter almost equal to -1 often leads to a finite future singularity. The singularities in the dark energy universe, by assuming bulk viscosity in the frame- work of Kaluza-Klein theory of gravitation have been discussed. Particularly, it is proved, that the physically natural as- sumption of letting the bulk viscosity be proportional to the scalar expansion in a spatially 5D FRW universe, can derive the fluid into the phantom region ( < -1), even if it lies in the quintessence region ( >-1) in the non viscous case. It is also shown that influence of the viscosity term acts to shorten the singularity time but it does not change the nature of sin- gularity in the framework of higher dimensional space time. Keywords: Big Rip, dark energy, future singularity, viscous cosmology. 1. INTRODUCTION including a quintessence (Wang et al. [12]) and phantom (Caldwell [13]), and (ii) interacting dark energy models, by A revolutionary development seems to have taken place considering the interaction including Chaplygin gas (Ka- in cosmology during the last few years. The latest develop- menohehik et al [14]), generalized Chaplygin gas (Bento et ments of super-string theory and super-gravitational theory al. -
Pushing the Limits of Time Beyond the Big Bang Singularity: Scenarios for the Branch Cut Universe
Received 05 april 2021; Revised 11 april 2021; Accepted 17 april 2021 DOI: xxx/xxxx ARTICLE TYPE Pushing the limits of time beyond the Big Bang singularity: Scenarios for the branch cut universe César A. Zen Vasconcellos*1,2 | Peter O. Hess3,4 | Dimiter Hadjimichef1 | Benno Bodmann5 | Moisés Razeira6 | Guilherme L. Volkmer1 1Instituto de Física, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Porto Alegre, Brazil In this contribution we identify two scenarios for the evolutionary branch cut uni- 2International Center for Relativistic verse. In the first scenario, the universe evolves continuously from the negative Astrophysics Network (ICRANet), Pescara, Italy complex cosmological time sector, prior to a primordial singularity, to the positive 3Universidad Nacional Autónoma de one, circumventing continuously a branch cut, and no primordial singularity occurs Mexico (UNAM), México City, México in the imaginary sector, only branch points. In the second scenario, the branch cut 4Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS), J.W. von Goethe University and branch point disappear after the realisation of the imaginary component of the (JWGU), Hessen, Germany complex time by means of a Wick rotation, which is replaced by the thermal time. In 5 Unversidade Federal de Santa Maria the second scenario, the universe has its origin in the Big Bang, but the model con- (UFSM), Santa Maria, Brazil 6Laboratório de Geociências Espaciais e templates simultaneously a mirrored parallel evolutionary universe going backwards Astrofísica (LaGEA), Universidade Federal in the cosmological thermal time negative sector. A quantum formulation based on do PAMPA (UNIPAMPA), Caçapava do the WDW equation is sketched and preliminary conclusions are drawn. -
Top 10 Discoveries by ESO Telescopes
Top 10 Discoveries by ESO Telescopes • European Southern Observatory – reaching new heights in astronomy • Exploring the Universe from the Atacama Desert, in Chile since 1964 • ESO is the most productive astronomical observatory in the world TOP 10 discoveries by ESO telescopes, 26 April 2011 La Silla Observatory: ESO’s first observatory • Two of the most productive 4-metre class telescopes in the world – ESO 3.6-metre telescope, since 1976 – The New Technology Telescope (NTT, 3.58 m), since 1989 • 300 refereed publications per year TOP 10 discoveries by ESO telescopes, 26 April 2011 ESO’s top 10 discoveries 1. Stars orbiting the Milky Way black hole 2. Accelerating Universe 3. First image of an exoplanet 4. Gamma-ray bursts — the connections with supernovae and merging neutron stars 5. Cosmic temperature independently measured 6. Oldest star known in the Milky Way 7. Flares from the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way 8. Direct measurements of the spectra of exoplanets and their atmospheres 9. Richest planetary system 10. Milky Way stellar motions More info in: http://www.eso.org/public/science/top10.html TOP 10 discoveries by ESO telescopes, 26 April 2011 1. Stars orbiting the Milky Way black hole TOP 10 discoveries by ESO telescopes, 26 April 2011 1. Stars orbiting the Milky Way black hole • The discovery: unprecedented 16-year long study tracks stars orbiting the Milky Way black hole • When: a 16-year long campaign started in 1992, with 50 nights of observations in total • Instruments / telescopes: – SHARP / NTT, La Silla Observatory – NACO / Yepun (UT4), VLT • More info in press releases eso0226 and eso0846: http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso0226/ http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso0846/ TOP 10 discoveries by ESO telescopes, 26 April 2011 1. -
Science Fiction Stories with Good Astronomy & Physics
Science Fiction Stories with Good Astronomy & Physics: A Topical Index Compiled by Andrew Fraknoi (U. of San Francisco, Fromm Institute) Version 7 (2019) © copyright 2019 by Andrew Fraknoi. All rights reserved. Permission to use for any non-profit educational purpose, such as distribution in a classroom, is hereby granted. For any other use, please contact the author. (e-mail: fraknoi {at} fhda {dot} edu) This is a selective list of some short stories and novels that use reasonably accurate science and can be used for teaching or reinforcing astronomy or physics concepts. The titles of short stories are given in quotation marks; only short stories that have been published in book form or are available free on the Web are included. While one book source is given for each short story, note that some of the stories can be found in other collections as well. (See the Internet Speculative Fiction Database, cited at the end, for an easy way to find all the places a particular story has been published.) The author welcomes suggestions for additions to this list, especially if your favorite story with good science is left out. Gregory Benford Octavia Butler Geoff Landis J. Craig Wheeler TOPICS COVERED: Anti-matter Light & Radiation Solar System Archaeoastronomy Mars Space Flight Asteroids Mercury Space Travel Astronomers Meteorites Star Clusters Black Holes Moon Stars Comets Neptune Sun Cosmology Neutrinos Supernovae Dark Matter Neutron Stars Telescopes Exoplanets Physics, Particle Thermodynamics Galaxies Pluto Time Galaxy, The Quantum Mechanics Uranus Gravitational Lenses Quasars Venus Impacts Relativity, Special Interstellar Matter Saturn (and its Moons) Story Collections Jupiter (and its Moons) Science (in general) Life Elsewhere SETI Useful Websites 1 Anti-matter Davies, Paul Fireball. -
A Physico-Chemical Approach to Understanding Cosmic Evolution: Thermodynamics of Expansion and Composition of the Universe
A Physico-Chemical Approach To Understanding Cosmic Evolution: Thermodynamics Of Expansion And Composition Of The Universe Carlos A. Melendres ( [email protected] ) The SHD Institute Research Article Keywords: Physical and Astrochemistry, composition and expansion of the universe, thermodynamics, phase diagram, Quantum Space, spaceons, dark energy, dark matter, cosmological constant, cosmic uid, Quintessence Posted Date: March 17th, 2021 DOI: https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-306782/v1 License: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Read Full License A PHYSICO-CHEMICAL APPROACH TO UNDERSTANDING COSMIC EVOLUTION: THERMODYNAMICS OF EXPANSION AND COMPOSITION OF THE UNIVERSE Carlos A. Melendres The SHD Institute 216 F Street, Davis, CA 95616, U.S.A. Email: [email protected] February 2021 (Prepared for: SCIENTIFIC REPORTS) Keywords: Physical and Astrochemistry, composition and expansion of the universe, thermodynamics, phase diagram, Quantum Space, spaceons, dark energy, dark matter, cosmological constant, cosmic fluid, Quintessence 1 A PHYSICO-CHEMICAL APPROACH TO UNDERSTANDING COSMIC EVOLUTION: THERMODYNAMICS OF EXPANSION AND COMPOSITION OF THE UNIVERSE Carlos A. Melendres [email protected] ABSTRACT We present a physico-chemical approach towards understanding the mysteries associated with the Inflationary Big Bang model of Cosmic evolution, based on a theory that space consists of energy quanta. We use thermodynamics to elucidate the expansion of the universe, its composition, and the nature of dark energy and dark matter. The universe started from an atomic size volume of space quanta at very high temperature. Upon expansion and cooling, phase transitions resulted in the formation of fundamental particles, and matter which grow into stars, galaxies, and clusters due to gravity.