One of the most popular concepts in physics is that of the Big Bang — the point when the universe as we know it came into being.
Now a theory challenges this whole picture. According to this theory, there was no Big Bang and the universe existed all along, without beginning or end.
Moreover, the theory also attempts to give an explanation of Dark Matter and Dark Energy — two phenomena that scientists are struggling to understand.
It is widely believed that the universe originated some 13.8 billion years ago and the bursting forth of this monstrous entity from a single point is termed the Big Bang.
The Big Bang appears as a singular point (Hawking-Penrose singularity) in the mathematical equations that define general theory of relativity. The laws of physics break down at this point and nothing can be known about what happened before this. In other words, it marks the point of birth of the universe.
Now, three scientists have come up with an alternative theory. In their theory, the universe may have existed all along, perhaps with no “beginning” as dramatic as a Big Bang.
Saurya Das, professor of physics at University of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, was fascinated by the Raychaudhuri equation (RE), which is an important step in deriving the Hawking-Penrose singularity theorems. The equation is attributed to Amal K Raychaudhuri who used to teach at Presidency College, Kolkata. When it is treated in a classical formalism, the equation leads to the singularity. But the singularity vanishes when the particles are treated as quantum particles and the fields are treated as classical. This leads to a solution which is the everlasting universe which was not born in a Big Bang. This was work published by Dr. Das in Physical Review D.
“This is unlike the steady state theory, according to which matter is constantly being generated to keep the universe steady,” Dr. Das said in an email to this Correspondent.
In the case of Dark Matter, he and his collaborators showed that it arises naturally. In a paper published recently in Physics Letters B, they showed that in the quantum corrected Raychaudhuri equation, one set of corrections can be interpreted as giving rise to Dark Matter, while the other term was instrumental in preventing the Big Bang-like scenario and giving infinite life to the universe.
The explanation for Dark Energy comes from the term that prevents the Big Bang-like scenario.
It must be mentioned that there are a few other approaches that have argued that there was no Big Bang.