Could the "big bang" recur?

[Deetee]

I know nothing about quantum physics/space-time/string theory etc, but wonder if the conditions that led to the big bang might still exist or be operable - could there feasibly be a BB2?

 

[AWPrime]

If I remember my Ekpyrotic Universe correctly, the big bang accured when two branes bumped into eachother.

I think that our universe has gotten a repulsive charge from the Big Bang. So we are save.


http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/astronomy/bigbang_alternative_010413-1.html

http://www.spacedaily.com/news/cosmology-01b.html

 

[Soapy Sam]

Thursdays. Round at my place.


Semi-seriously, I occasionlly wonder if the universe as we see it is just one bubble in a foam that fills some sort of multiverse, and that if you sat upside down like a fly on the ceiling of the whole thing you would realise the universe-bubbles are popping in and out of existence all the time.

And as you look further, you can make out the sides of a giant tub, in which is soaking the Ancient of Days, reading a comic book and scratching his back with THE HOLY LOOFAH.

Well, so and do your own creation myth then. At least mine's clean.

 

[Badly Shaved Monkey]

As far as I have read, the possibilities for cosmology are fairly unconstrained by actual experimental data so almost anything you suggest might happen, but you'd need to be a physicist to answer in detail. So, I think all the science fiction favourites, such as white holes seeding new Universes or new universes coninuously bubbling into existence 'adjacent' to each other in different dimensions, cannot be excluded as impossible.

I think the only Universe that is completely precluded is one in which Kumar makes sense, but I could be wrong.

 

[Deetee]

Luckily, the fact that Newton's gravitational constant doesn't appear to be changing implies we're safe from a collision for many billions of years.

Assuming the brane theory is correct of course.....

I shall now hold my breath.

 

[Hellbound]

As far as I have read, the possibilities for cosmology are fairly unconstrained by actual experimental data so almost anything you suggest might happen, but you'd need to be a physicist to answer in detail. So, I think all the science fiction favourites, such as white holes seeding new Universes or new universes coninuously bubbling into existence 'adjacent' to each other in different dimensions, cannot be excluded as impossible.

I think the only Universe that is completely precluded is one in which Kumar makes sense, but I could be wrong.

Actually, I haven't heard white holes in quite some time.

Along that vein, the current ideas lean towards black holes as being "child" universes. Our universe could be seen as a black hole, as well (albeit a large one); it is massive enough that light cannot escape it. Can't recall where I read about that one...I think it was in a SciAm special issue a year or two back.