Concise description of the Big Bang Theory (or ΛCDM models), possible? or not?

[DeiRenDopa]

Is it possible to write a concise description of the Big Bang Theory? Of the general class of ΛCDM cosmological models (leaving the values of the parameters, including uncertainties, to a separate table)?

Can this be done without the need for lots of links?

Why am I asking this? Because a recent thread requested something similar, and what was provided was ~2000 words, and 11 references.

Can you describe the Big Bang Theory concisely?

Moving to a more technical level, can you describe the general class of ΛCDM cosmological models, concisely?

Starting presumption: your audience is familiar with standard, textbook, physics, to an appropriate level (popsci for 'the Big Bang Theory', last year of an undergrad science degree for ΛCDM cosmological models).

 

[Zeuzzz]

Is it possible to write a concise description of the Big Bang Theory? Of the general class of ΛCDM cosmological models (leaving the values of the parameters, including uncertainties, to a separate table)?

Can this be done without the need for lots of links?

Why am I asking this? Because a recent thread requested something similar, and what was provided was ~2000 words, and 11 references.

Can you describe the Big Bang Theory concisely?

Moving to a more technical level, can you describe the general class of ΛCDM cosmological models, concisely?

Starting presumption: your audience is familiar with standard, textbook, physics, to an appropriate level (popsci for 'the Big Bang Theory', last year of an undergrad science degree for ΛCDM cosmological models).

I'll be interested to hear this. And my post that you quoted above was definately not a request to explain the entire scope of plasma cosmology, it was a responce to Sols post on Olbers' paradox allegedly proving the universe is finite, and I gave my opinion on whether the universe is finite or infinite by writing a brief comparison to the fundamental difference in approach of Plasma Cosmology and the Big Bang.

 

[DeiRenDopa]

I'll be interested to hear this. And my post that you quoted above was definately not a request to explain the entire scope of plasma cosmology, it was a responce to Sols post on Olbers' paradox allegedly proving the universe is finite, and I gave my opinion on whether the universe is finite or infinite by writing a brief comparison to the fundamental difference in approach of Plasma Cosmology and the Big Bang.

Indeed.

Here is how you prefaced your reference to that post, in direct response to the request "[post] a concise description of Plasma Cosmology":

This post I just wrote may act as a good starting point

 

[Wangler]

Is it possible to write a concise description of the Big Bang Theory? Of the general class of ΛCDM cosmological models (leaving the values of the parameters, including uncertainties, to a separate table)?

Can this be done without the need for lots of links?

Why am I asking this? Because a recent thread requested something similar, and what was provided was ~2000 words, and 11 references.

Can you describe the Big Bang Theory concisely?

Moving to a more technical level, can you describe the general class of ΛCDM cosmological models, concisely?

Starting presumption: your audience is familiar with standard, textbook, physics, to an appropriate level (popsci for 'the Big Bang Theory', last year of an undergrad science degree for ΛCDM cosmological models).

I think that it could be done without lots of links.

I would imagine a brief overview could be a single post, with another post of parameters, and another of references.

I have seen some technical papers that contain pretty good overviews.

 

[robinson]

Is it possible to write a concise description of the Big Bang Theory?

Of course.
http://www.aboutbigbang.com/results.asp?nPrimero=16&nResultados=15&Buscar=&nSector=1&cSector=Theory

 

[TV's Frank]

I'll take a stab at it...

About a dozen billion years ago, the entire visible universe was the size of a peach, and had a temperature of several million degrees. In this era, all the hydrogen (and some helium and lithium) were formed. The universe expanded and cooled. As it expanded, tiny fluctuations in the vacuum expanded to become the seeds of structure. When it became cool enough for atoms to form, light that was created then sailed on through, not really interacting with matter until some of it hit our detectors. This is the Cosmic Microwave Background, and carries the signal of those first little bumps and wiggles that grew up into clusters of galaxies. The first bits of matter to form into structures were some form of particles that don't interact with light, called dark matter. Normal matter followed right behind. First small structures formed: galaxy-sized clumps or smaller. They coalesced into ever-larger objects. Right now, the largest structures, superclusters, are still forming. About five billion years ago the expansion of the universe started accelerating. This is caused by some unknown entity, called dark energy.

 

[TV's Frank]

That, at least, is my "elevator ride" description of cosmology. As for the different classes of LCDM. Well, we don't know a priori how much of the universe is made up of dark matter, normal matter, radiation, and dark energy. There's also a few other free parameters. Depending on the values of these, you get slightly different universes. However, the general structure of the theory (big bang expansion, cold dark matter, and late-time acceleration) describes the universe very well.

 

[robinson]

This could be a fun thread.

A long long time ago, like, a really really long time ago, everything was all in one place, and there wasn't anything else but everything in one place, which was really small, and really hot, except there wasn't any heat yet, or gravity, so there really wasn't anything, if you were around to see it, you couldn't.

Don't ask where it came from, it just was there. Somewhere, except there wasn't any space or time, so we can't say where it was, so just imagine everything was a tiny little ball of, something, and it was there for some time, if time had been invented yet, which it wasn't, so it was there for eternity, until it blew up, in a really big bang.

Then everything, which was a moment before, a tiny little ball, turned into the entire Universe. At first it was a lot of energy, but then it turned into matter, which turned into everything we know today, except for waves of light and other electromagnetic energy, which are still going, but anyhow, time was created, and so we can say now, this happened billions of years ago, and we know this because everything we see, except for some things, are all flying away from each other, except at some point dark energy just showed up, along with dark matter, both of which are causing everything to speed up, instead of slowing down, which is what you might expect, with gravity and everything, but it is not, so dark energy is causing everything to just keep expanding, and we know this because we can see it.

Well, we can't see it, which is why it is called dark, but it has to be there because there isn't enough mass, even with dark matter added in, to slow down the expansion of everything, which means it will just keep getting bigger and bigger, and never collapse back into a little ball again.

If it wasn't for dark energy, everything would slow down and start heading back towards everything becoming a little ball of really hot stuff again. Except for all that energy going away at the speed of light, which won't come back, no matter how much gravity there is, because light isn't effected by gravity, but space/time is, and if space time is distorted enough by a really really lot of gravity, even light will curve so it can't go flying off like it wants to.

OK that wasn't really concise, and probably some people won't even agree with parts of it.

So post your own version then.

 

[TV's Frank]

Most of the above did not describe Big Bang cosmology.

 

[robinson]

Really? I'm shocked I tell you. Shocked.

Please, give us your version.

 

[TV's Frank]

I, uh.....er, already did.

 

[robinson]

OK maybe I should try and be more serious. Because this origin of the Universe is serious business.

All real scientists agree that the universe began some 12 to 20 billion years ago, which means there is an 8 billion year difference, but since that is only about a half, or a third of the total age of the universe, depending on who you agree with, it isn't important. This theory is known as the Big Bang because Fred Hoyle, in 1950, used the term to mock those who wanted to use a Creation myth to explain how the Universe came to be. In a sweet move, his detractors embraced the term, which really annoyed Hoyle. You might think the Big Bang means there was a big explosion, but it wasn't really an "explosion" , what really happened is space itself exploded.

"Before" the Big Bang, the universe was really really small and very very hot. Hotter than hot, like, really really really hot. Smart scientist believe that all forms of matter and energy, as well as space and time itself, were formed at the moment this dense hot "something" exploded. So because there was no time before the Bang, within the context of known physics, we don't have to answer any questions about what happened "before" the explosion.

Most scientist say we don't really know anything about what happened between the Big Bang and 10^-43 seconds later. But we think Space was certainly expanding, really fast, and this expansion of space formed a highly energetic soup of particles and antiparticles. Not matter, but something that could turn into matter later. Like plasma.

From 10^-43 to 10^-35 seconds after the Big Bang, everything is a bit confusing. Gravity existed, but electromagnetism and the nuclear forces were all one. Moving on, we jump to the next event, which we know a lot more about.

Like anything that expands, the Universe got cooler. At 10^-35 seconds, the temperature was around 10^27 degrees K, give or take a few million degrees, so the universe underwent a phase transition, and the strong nuclear force split off from the other forces. As if things weren't bad enough, this released an enormous amount of energy.

Suddenly, the universe grew by a factor of 10^50 in 10^-33 seconds!
(Hey, I know that is hard to believe, but it is a fact baby. Get used to it)

Then things slowed down and got even cooler. Suddenly, matter appeared, stuff like photons, quarks, neutrinos, and electrons, and then, like magic, protons and neutrons! All this in less than one second!
A billion years later, this matter turned into the first stars and galaxies.

Now, which is either 11 or 19 billion years after that, the Universe is 5 times bigger, still expanding, and still ringing with the "sound" of the original explosion, which is called background radiation. At some point Dark Energy appeared, and is messing with the slowing of the expansion.

 

[robinson]

I, uh.....er, already did.

Oh snap! I thought you were talking about the other Universe. My bad.

 

[INRM]

DeiRenDopa

Is it possible to write a concise description of the Big Bang Theory? Of the general class of ΛCDM cosmological models (leaving the values of the parameters, including uncertainties, to a separate table)?

The uncertainties can be answered? I thought uncertainties were random...


BTW: When the universe started... were there any dimensions? Or they didn't exist until the expansion began?

 

[Wangler]

OK maybe I should try and be more serious. Because this origin of the Universe is serious business.

All real scientists agree that the universe began some 12 to 20 billion years ago, which means there is an 8 billion year difference, but since that is only about a half, or a third of the total age of the universe, depending on who you agree with, it isn't important. This theory is known as the Big Bang because Fred Hoyle, in 1950, used the term to mock those who wanted to use a Creation myth to explain how the Universe came to be. In a sweet move, his detractors embraced the term, which really annoyed Hoyle. You might think the Big Bang means there was a big explosion, but it wasn't really an "explosion" , what really happened is space itself exploded.

"Before" the Big Bang, the universe was really really small and very very hot. Hotter than hot, like, really really really hot. Smart scientist believe that all forms of matter and energy, as well as space and time itself, were formed at the moment this dense hot "something" exploded. So because there was no time before the Bang, within the context of known physics, we don't have to answer any questions about what happened "before" the explosion.

Most scientist say we don't really know anything about what happened between the Big Bang and 10^-43 seconds later. But we think Space was certainly expanding, really fast, and this expansion of space formed a highly energetic soup of particles and antiparticles. Not matter, but something that could turn into matter later. Like plasma.

From 10^-43 to 10^-35 seconds after the Big Bang, everything is a bit confusing. Gravity existed, but electromagnetism and the nuclear forces were all one. Moving on, we jump to the next event, which we know a lot more about.

Like anything that expands, the Universe got cooler. At 10^-35 seconds, the temperature was around 10^27 degrees K, give or take a few million degrees, so the universe underwent a phase transition, and the strong nuclear force split off from the other forces. As if things weren't bad enough, this released an enormous amount of energy.

Suddenly, the universe grew by a factor of 10^50 in 10^-33 seconds!
(Hey, I know that is hard to believe, but it is a fact baby. Get used to it)

Then things slowed down and got even cooler. Suddenly, matter appeared, stuff like photons, quarks, neutrinos, and electrons, and then, like magic, protons and neutrons! All this in less than one second!
A billion years later, this matter turned into the first stars and galaxies.

Now, which is either 11 or 19 billion years after that, the Universe is 5 times bigger, still expanding, and still ringing with the "sound" of the original explosion, which is called background radiation. At some point Dark Energy appeared, and is messing with the slowing of the expansion.

Why have you posted here? This could work into a great journal article. BB'ers would love it!

 

[rats]

Is it possible to write a concise description of the Big Bang Theory?

I could, but it would include equations. It would take a bit of thought for which I don't have the time at the moment (this not being the area of physics I work in).

I'll be back Sunday if no one else has written a piece [that I think is better than what I would write].

 

[ImaginalDisc]

I think it's important to note that matter is younger than energy. In the early universe, energy "condensed" into matter as space expanded. Sometimes, people have a hard time imagining how all the stuff in the universe could occupy such a small space, but it's easier when you realize that the "stuff" was energy, which can be compacted much more easily than matter.

 

[Dancing David]

I'll take a stab at it...

About a dozen billion years ago, the entire visible universe was the size of a peach, and had a temperature of several million degrees. In this era, all the hydrogen (and some helium and lithium) were formed. The universe expanded and cooled. As it expanded, tiny fluctuations in the vacuum expanded to become the seeds of structure. When it became cool enough for atoms to form, light that was created then sailed on through, not really interacting with matter until some of it hit our detectors. This is the Cosmic Microwave Background, and carries the signal of those first little bumps and wiggles that grew up into clusters of galaxies. The first bits of matter to form into structures were some form of particles that don't interact with light, called dark matter. Normal matter followed right behind. First small structures formed: galaxy-sized clumps or smaller. They coalesced into ever-larger objects. Right now, the largest structures, superclusters, are still forming. About five billion years ago the expansion of the universe started accelerating. This is caused by some unknown entity, called dark energy.

Yay for the universe!

 

[aggle-rithm]

It's in the opening credits of the TV show:

"Our whole universe was in a hot, dense state
Nearly 14 million years ago, expansion started -- wait --
The Earth began to cool
The autotrophes began to drool
Neanderthals invented tools
We built the Wall
We built the pyramids
Math, Science, History,
Unraveling the mystery,
It all started with the Big Bang."

 

[ImaginalDisc]

"Our whole universe was in a hot, dense state
Nearly 14 million years ago, expansion started -- wait --

Error.