Big Twang Theory | openwebworks blog

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Cosmologists have made great progress developing cogent theories about the fundamental properties of the observable universe. We can now map it with instruments like the Hubble Space Telescope, the COsmic Background Explorer (COBE), and the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP). These tools follow breakthroughs like the general theory of relativity, and point to a birth event some 13.75 billions year ago. Big Bang Theory posits an massive explosion from a dense singularity, expressed as heat, charged particles, and gravitational waves. In this overview, I propose an alternative theory that is consonent with the observational data, but which I believe is more useful and predictive in describing the origin, structure, and ultimate fate of the universe.

Big Bang Theory holds that the universe was born in a highly energetic explosion radiating outward from a single dense point in space-time. The Big Bang conjures an image of the most violent event possible short of the eventual death of the universe in a Big Crunch. Some suggest that the Big Bang and the Big Crunch follow each other in a repeating cycle, and the universe we know is only one instance in a series of universes we can know nothing about. There's a lot we don't know, but the Big Bang metaphor provides a useful framework for thinking about the massive energies we can detect were unleashed as the present universe was born.

But we've begun to gather clues to a much more subtle explanation. We can now study the background radiation emanating from the universe's moment of birth, and map the distribution of energy and matter as wave-like patterns. Albert Einstein first theorized the existence of gravitational waves, ripples of gravity which warp space and time. But Einstein couldn't account for how gravity waves were created, nor how they relate to the so-called weak force which binds elementary particles inside atoms. General Relativity began to resolve lots of big issues, but didn't reconcile the tiny quantum behavior of the infinitesimal with the grande-scale shape, motion, and expansion of the universe.

Superstring creating gravity waves String Theory provides a promising new conceptual framework. Singing cosmic superstrings are elementary particles tightly wound in several dimensions. Superstrings could form galactic-sized vibrating loops emitting huge gravitational waves which ripple throughout the cosmos.

Cloud waves Waves and wave-like resonances can be detected throughout the cosmos, in chemical and fluid dynamics at the planetary scale, and in the expression of proteins as directed by living DNA. String Theory might explain why light can manifest as a particle or a wave at any point of observation. It might reconcile the force of gravity with the weak force governing atoms. It might reveal the birth and fate of the universe.

But why wait for some obscure and boring theory to tell us what we already know in our bones? Big Bang is well-established, but it's just too Hollywood. Meanwhile, poets and astronomers have waxed for days about the Music of the Spheres which fits with String Theory. So I propose a compromise. The Big Bang unleashed universe-size energies still driving expansion, fine. Superstrings vibrate through space and time. Look: we can best understand the birth of the universe as the plucking of a string. From this initial note emanate massive vibrational energies expressed in multiple dimensions. It was, after all, a very loud note.

The Big Twang image Thus we see the expansion of the universe as a wavefront of cosmic sound. Its multi-dimensional harmonics account for the multivarient phenomena we perceive at all scales, e.g. galaxies, planets, atoms, and their interactions in animate and inanimate objects and systems. My proposal is that in the spirit of scientific accuracy we should more properly label this event as The Big Twang.