We ended the previous episode on The Big Bang Theory with a quote from Stephen Hawking:
“The chances of a universe like ours emerging from something like the Big Bang are insanely small. I think there are purely religious implications here. It would be very difficult to explain why the universe had to begin its evolution in such a state, unless it was an act of God wanting to create beings like us."
What about the Big Bang?
Why is the probability of our Universe occurring so insanely low, and what is special about it? I will try to briefly tell you about it, avoiding the indigestible language of physics as much as possible.
Symmetry lost just after the Big Bang
In the first micro-moments after the Big Bang due to the continuous expansion of matter and antimatter, they were created in more or less equal amounts.
Interestingly: scientists are now able to recreate the entire process down to the moment of 10 to the power of minus 43 seconds after the explosion — that is, one-tenth of a millionth millionth millionth millionth millionth millionth of a second!
Each meeting of the quark and the antiquark resulted in the complete annihilation of both “particles” and the release of a photon of light.
It turns out, however, that at some point after the Big Bang, the symmetry between the amount of matter and antimatter ceased to exist, and for every billion pairs of quarks and antiquarks, for some reason, there was one extra quark. It was this fraction of all the initial, unimaginably dense matter that ultimately became the mass of the entire universe that we know today.
Where did this asymmetry come from?
Today no one can answer this question. If it had not happened, however, the universe would have quickly been transformed into pure radiation, and stars and planets would never have formed, let alone living creatures.
Macro Scale — Constant Gravity Value
The speed at which the Universe expanded depends largely on its initial energy and the force of gravity, which affects the resulting matter and antimatter after the Big Bang.
If the initial rate of expansion had been lower by one-thousandth of one-millionth of one-millionth of a percent (!), the Universe would have collapsed again long ago. On the other hand, if the rate of expansion were even one-millionth of a percent faster, stars and planets could not form …
Micro Scale — The value of the nuclear forces of the atom
If the nuclear forces holding protons and neutrons together in the nucleus were even slightly weaker, only hydrogen would be produced in the Universe.
If they were slightly stronger, all the hydrogen would be converted to helium. It also appears that nuclear forces are correlated enough to create the carbon that forms the basis of life on Earth. For if they were any more valuable, all of the carbon would turn into oxygen in the stars. Could it just be a coincidence?
Mutual adjustment of Macro and Micro World
Today’s science knows more than 30 constants, the value of which is simply given. They result from experimental measurements, but cannot be deduced from any mathematical calculations. They simply have such and no other value. These include, for example:
speed of light,
value of strong and weak nuclear interactions,
constants for electromagnetism,
Planck’s constant,
gravity constant,
or the cosmological constant.
Surprisingly they are all correlated with each other in such a way that conscious life can occur in the Universe only with such a combination.
The probability of such one single correlation is infinitely small. Why?
Because each of them must achieve its strictly defined value, additionally correlated with the value of all the others. Suffice it to say that the cosmological constant is determined with an accuracy of:
1 : 100 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 (!!!)
Of course, the question now arises: how to interpret these discoveries?
The Anthropic Principle or Parallel Worlds
For some, they lead to the anthropic principle, which is the belief that the laws of the Universe were carefully designed so that conscious life could arise.
For others, it leads to the theory of parallel worlds (or the Multiverse), in which our Universe is simply one of an infinite number of realities existing.
I leave the choice to you, dear readers. We enter here undoubtedly the area of faith 🙂 In both versions the question remains unanswered: WHO or what was the cause of the Big Bang(s)?
Deus ex machina, (Latin: “god from the machine”) a person or thing that appears or is introduced into a situation suddenly and unexpectedly and provides an artificial or contrived solution to an apparently insoluble difficulty — Encyclopaedia Britannica
See also: