The History of the Universe in 1000 Words or Less: The origin and fate of the universe

The History of the Universe in 1000 Words or Less:
The origin and fate of the universe
Manjunath.R
#16/1, 8th Main Road, Shivanagar, Rajajinagar, Bangalore560010, Karnataka, India
*Email: manjunath5496@gmail.com
"The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing."
− Socrates

Disclaimer
© Copyright 2019 Manjunath.R
Despite my best efforts to assure the accuracy of the material in this book, I do not accept
and hereby disclaim any liability to any party for any loss, damage, or disruption caused by
mistakes or omissions, whether caused by negligence, accident, or any other cause.
For any suggestions or concerns, please write to me: manjunath5496@gmail.com
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Dedication
I dedicate this book to everyone who has contributed significantly to our understanding of the
universe as a whole, why it is the way it is, and why it even exists.

Acknowledgements
Without the amazing work of some renowned cosmologists and physicists, their creativity, and their
inventiveness in thefield of cosmology, this book would not have been accomplished. I would like to use
this opportunity to thank my dearest friend and well-wisher "Lawrence" for his unwavering support
during the COVID crisis and for giving me access to all the resources I needed to finish this book. I want
to express my gratitude to my family for their support and encouragement as I wrote this book, especially
to my mother, who has been a tremendous source of inspiration in my life. I owe a lot of gratitude to my
mother for teaching me how to be perseverant and strong in life. Finally, I want to emphasize how crucial
patience is when writing a book or taking on any other project in life.

"Through our eyes, the universe is perceiving itself. Through our ears,
the universe is listening to its harmonies. We are the witnesses through
which the universe becomes conscious of its glory, of its magnificence."
−Alan Wilson Watts

Introduction
Each theoretical model approach has had some degree of success, and string theoretical
physicists' approaches in particular are proving to be effective in solving several challenging
cosmological issues. But neither loop quantum gravity (where the idea that space itself is
formed of small loops is presented) nor string theory has undergone experimental investigation.
The hard "Theory of everything," which would explain everything from fundamental particles
and their interactions to the universe's overall structure, is still unknown to us at this time. Even
if we start out figuring the cosmos is already pretty damn difficult, all we need to know right
now is that it's a lot more challenging than we might believe. We human beings − who are
ourselves mere collections of fundamental particles of nature – unsure of why there is a
Higgs boson and why it has the mass that it has − try to wonder, seek answers and gazing at
the immense heavens above, we have always asked a multitude of questions: What does matter
consist of? Why does gravity seem so odd? Why does it seem like time moves in only one
direction? How old is the Universe? What happened to all the antimatter? How does life begin?
Can a single unified theory of physics be discovered? How were the heavier elements, such as
uranium and iron, created? What is space and time made of? What kind of thing is
consciousness? What are the underlying principles of quantum theory? How are we going to
combine Einsteinian relativity and quantum mechanics? What sort of physics exists outside
of the standard model? Is it necessary to develop a new theory of light and matter to account for
what arises at very high energy and temperatures? What is gravity, anyway? What is the
currently most accepted model for the Universe? Are there any other dimensions? Do we really
exist in a false vacuum? Do the forces of the cosmos converge into one? Are there naked
singularities? Where does quantum strangeness stop? What was there prior to the Big Bang?
We advance in time for what reason? Why are there three dimensions in space? Can energy be
created out of nothing? How long is the life of a proton? The universe is vast, but is it infinite?
How did the cosmos start? Where did we come from? Why is there a time arrow? Exist there
worlds outside our own? What will happen to the universe? Does string theory hold true? Is
chaos governed by order? Was the universe's entropy exceptionally low when the Big Bang
created it, 14 billion years ago? Many others! These questions continue to trouble scientists

despite the massive amounts of data coming in from observatories around the globe and from
particle physics experiments like the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland, as well as despite
the countless hours that astronomers and physicists spend in front of a blackboard or running
computational simulations.
The standard model of particle physics is an incredible accomplishment. But we are aware of
its limitations. There is no gravity in it. Dark matter and dark energy are not discussed. However,
there are currently no alternatives that are better. Recent cosmological findings demonstrate that
ordinary matter and dark matter still fall short of fully explaining the universe's overall
structure. There is a third constituent present, but it isn't matter; it's a hypothetical kind of dark
energy that acts as the opposite of gravity by exerting a repellent, negative force. One of the
main initiatives that have united cosmologists and particle physicists together is the search for
the underlying principles and physical laws that we need to advance beyond the physics of today.
This book is a glimpse into the living story of our universe and a clear, readable and self-
contained introduction to the story of how our understanding of the cosmos has evolved
significantly over time. It fills the gap and addresses the issues that are important to everyone, or
at least to everyone reading this book, and it inspires us to explore the entire cosmos from
creation to ultimate destruction, with a wealth of secrets at every turn with an improved
comprehension of what time is and what makes it unique.
This book concentrates on presenting the subject from the understanding perspective of
cosmology and brings the reader right up to date with curious aspects of cosmology established
over the last few centuries. This book assumes cosmology a journey not a destination and the
advance of knowledge is an infinite progression towards a goal that forever recedes. This book
will be of interest to students, teachers and general science readers interested in fundamental
ideas of cosmology from the infinitely hot and dense Big Bang to the present day and on into
the future. No physicist today would boldly proclaim that our understanding of the ever-
expanding physical cosmos is nearly complete. On the alternative, every recent revelation would
seem to open a Gordian knot of new, more complicated cosmological challenges.

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
License: Public Domain

THE HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE IN 1000 WORDS OR LESS
 Cosmic Event in which our universe was born.
 Cosmic Inflation in which the Grand Unified Force was separated into the Four Forces
of Nature (gravity, electromagnetic, the weak force and the strong force) as We Now
Know Them, and the space expanded by a factor of the order of 1026
over a time of the
order of 10−36
to 10−32
seconds to Many Times Its Original Size in a Very Short Period of
Time – Rapid expansion in which the universe super cooled, though not Quite as Quickly
from about 1027
down to 1022
Kelvins.
 There were 2 types of fundamental particles: quarks and leptons. Quarks felt the strong
interaction, leptons did not. Both quarks and leptons felt the other three interactions.
 PARTICLE-ANTIPARTICLE ANNIHILATION in which All the Antiparticles in the
Universe Annihilated Almost All the Particles, Creating a Universe Made Up of Matter
and Photons (which did not possessed electrical charge nor did they had any rest mass)
and no antimatter. This process satisfied a number of conservation laws including:
 Conservation of electric charge: The net charge before and after is zero.
 Conservation of momentum and energy: The net momentum and energy before
and after is zero.
The effort to understand the universe is one of the very few
things that lifts human life a little above the level of farce,
and gives it some of the grace of tragedy.
− Steven Weinberg
1

If the positron and the electron were moving very slowly, then they went into orbit round
each other producing a quasi-stable bound atom-like object called positronium.
Positronium was very unstable: the positron and the electron invariably destroyed each
other to produce high energetic gamma photons.
 DEUTERIUM AND HELIUM PRODUCTION in which Many of the positively
charged Protons and electrically neural Neutrons in the Early Universe Combined to
Form Heavy Hydrogen and Helium. The proton was composed of two up quarks and one
down quark and the neutron was composed of two down quarks and one up quark.
Charge on the up quark was +
2
3
×1.6 × 10−19
coulombs
Charge on the down quark was −
1
3
×1.6 × 10−19
coulombs
The charge on the proton was approximately + 1.6 × 10−19
coulombs and that on the
electron was −1.6 × 10−19
coulombs.
Intrinsic energy of a proton or a neutron was = Kinetic Energy of quarks +
Potential Energy of quarks + intrinsic energy of quarks
 RECOMBINATION in which Electrons Combined with Hydrogen and Helium Nuclei,
Producing Neutral Atoms. A neutrino was passed through matter then it reacted with a
proton to produce a positively charged particle with the same mass as the electron—this
particle was the positron. The properties of the strong force were such that the quarks did
not all stick together in one large mass (otherwise the newly born universe would have
been a huge lump of fundamental constituent of matter). The strong force ensured that
quarks and antiquarks could only stick together in groups of three:
2 up quarks + 1 down quark
or
Proton
2

2 up antiquarks + 1 down antiquark
or as a quark and an antiquark pair (up quark + up antiquark).
 GALAXY FORMATION in which the Milky Way Galaxy (consisted of ≈1011
stars) was
Formed – TURBULENT FRAGMENTATION in which a Giant Cloud of Gas Fragments
broke into Smaller Clouds, which later Became Protostars – MASSIVE STAR
FORMATION in which a Massive Star was Formed. The star's gravity tried to squeeze
the star into the smallest ball possible. But the nuclear fusion reaction in the star's core
created strong outward radiation pressure. This outward radiation pressure resisted the
inward squeeze of a force called gravity.
 STELLAR EVOLUTION in which Stars Evolved and Eventually Died– IRON
PRODUCTION in which Iron was Produced in the Core of a Massive Star, Resulting in a
Disaster called SUPERNOVA EXPLOSION in Which a Massive Star Ended Its Life by
Exploding outpouring electromagnetic radiation over a very short period of time – STAR
FORMATION in which the Sun was Formed within a cloud of gas in a spiral arm of the
Milky Way Galaxy. There was a mass limit to neutron stars. It was approximately about 4
solar mass. Beyond this limit the degenerate neutron pressure was not sufficient to
overcome the gravitational contraction and the star collapsed to black holes. There was
no mass limit to the mass of a black hole.
 PLANETARY DIFFERENTIATION in which the vast disk of gas and debris that
swirled around the sun giving birth to planets, moons, and asteroids. Planet Earth is the third
planet out − VOLATILE GAS EXPULSION in which the Atmosphere of the Earth was
Produced – MOLECULAR REPRODUCTION in which Life on Earth was created.
 PROTEIN CONSTRUCTION in which Proteins were built from organic compounds that
contain amino and carboxyl functional groups (Amino Acids) – FERMENTATION in
which Microorganisms Obtained Energy by converting sugar into alcohol – CELL
DIFFERENTIATION in which dividing cells changed their functional or phenotypical
type and Eukaryotic Life had a beginning.
Antiproton
3

 RESPIRATION in which Eukaryotes Evolved to Survive in an Atmosphere with
Increasing Amounts of Oxygen – MULTICELLULAR ORGANISMS CREATION In
Which Organisms Composed of Multiple Cells emerged – SEXUAL REPRODUCTION
in Which a New Form of Reproduction Occurred and with the invention of sex, two
organisms exchanged whole paragraphs, pages and books of their DNA helix, producing
new varieties for the sieve of natural selection. And the natural selection was a choice of
stable forms and a rejection of unstable ones. And the variation within a species occurred
randomly, and that the survival or extinction of each organism depended upon its ability
to adapt to the environment. And organisms that found sex uninteresting quickly became
extinct.
 EVOLUTIONARY DIVERSIFICATION in which the Diversity of Life Forms on Earth
Increased Greatly in a Relatively Short Time – TRILOBITE DOMINATION In Which
Trilobites (an extremely successful subphylum of the arthropods that were at the top of
the food chain in Earth's marine ecosystems for about 250 million years) Ruled the Earth.
 LAND EXPLORATION In Which Animals First Venture was Onto Land – COMET
COLLISION in which a Comet smashed the Earth – DINOSAUR EXTINCTION In
Which an asteroid or comet slammed into the northern part of the Yucatan Peninsula in
Mexico. This world-wide cataclysm brought to an end the long age of the fossil reptiles
of the Mesozoic era (dinosaurs)
 MAMMAL EXPANSION in which Many Species of warm-blooded animals with hair
and backbones was developed – HOMO SAPIENS MANIFESTATION In Which our
caveman ancestors Appeared in Africa from a line of creatures that descended from apes.
 LANGUAGE ACQUISITION in which something called curiosity ensued which
triggered the breath of perception and our caveman ancestors became conscious of their
existence and they learned to talk and they Developed Spoken Language –
GLACIATION in which the formation, movement and recession of glaciers Began.
 INNOVATION in which Advanced Tools were Widely made and Used – RELIGION In
Which a Diversity of Beliefs emerged – ANIMAL DOMESTICATION in which Humans
Domesticated Animals.
4

 FOOD SURPLUS PRODUCTION In Which Humans Developed and promoted the
practice of cultivating plants and livestock – INSCRIPTION In Which Writing was
Invented and it allowed the communication of ideas.
 WARRING NATIONS In Which Nation Battled Nation for Resources – EMPIRE
CREATION AND DESTRUCTION In Which the First Empire in Human
History Came and went – CIVILIZATION In Which Many and Sundry Events Occurred.
 CONSTITUTION In Which a Constitution was Written to determine the powers and
duties of the government and guarantee certain rights to the people in it –
INDUSTRIALIZATION in Which Automated Manufacturing and Agriculture
Revolutionized the World – WORLD CONFLAGRATIONS In Which Most of the
World was at War.
 FISSION EXPLOSIONS In Which Humans Developed the most dangerous
weapons on earth (Nuclear Weapons) – COMPUTERIZATION In Which Computers
were Developed to carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations automatically.
 SPACE EXPLORATION In Which Humans Began to Explore Outer Space which fuelled
interest in exploring and discovering new worlds − pushing the boundaries of the known
− and expanding scientific and technical knowledge – POPULATION EXPLOSION In
Which the Human Population of the Earth Increased at a Very Rapid Pace.
 SUPERPOWER CONFRONTATION In Which Two Powerful Nations Risked it All –
INTERNET EXPANSION In Which a Network of Computers Developed to carry out a
vast range of information resources and services.
 RESIGNATION In Which One Human Quitted His Job – REUNIFICATION In Which a
Wall went Up and Then Came Down.
 WORLD WIDE WEB CREATION In Which a New Medium was Created to meet the
demand for automated information-sharing between scientists in universities and
institutes around the world – COMPOSITION In Which a Book was Written –
EXTRAPOLATION In Which Future Events were Discussed.
Nothing happens until something moves.
― Albert Einstein
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4
Ever since the beginning of human civilization, we have not been in a state of satisfaction to
watch things as incoherent and unexplainable. While we have been thinking whether the
universe began at the big bang singularity and would come to an end either at the big crunch
singularity, we have converted at least a thousand joules of energy in the form of thoughts. This
has decreased the disorder of the human brain by about few million units. Thus, in a sense, the
evolution of human civilization in understanding the universe has established a small corner of
the order in a human brain. However, the burning questions still remain unresolved, which set
the human race to keep away from such issues. Many early native postulates have fallen or are
falling aside – and there now alternative substitutes. In short, while we do not have an answer,
we now have a whisper of the grandeur of the problem. With our limited brains and tiny
knowledge, we cannot hope to have a complete picture of unlimited speculating about the
gigantic universe we live in.
In 1911, fresh from completion of his PhD, the young Danish physicist Niels Bohr left
Denmark on a foreign scholarship headed for the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge to work
under J. J. Thomson on the structure of atomic systems. At the time, Bohr began to put forth the
idea that since light could no long be treated as continuously propagating waves, but instead as
discrete energy packets (as articulated by Planck and Einstein), why should the classical
Newtonian mechanics on which Thomson's model was based hold true? It seemed to Bohr that
the atomic model should be modified in a similar way. If electromagnetic energy is quantized,
i.e. restricted to take on only integer values of hυ, where υ is the frequency of light, then it
seemed reasonable that the mechanical energy associated with the energy of atomic electrons is
also quantized. However, Bohr's still somewhat vague ideas were not well received by
Thomson, and Bohr decided to move from Cambridge after his first year to a place where his
concepts about quantization of electronic motion in atoms would meet less opposition. He
chose the University of Manchester, where the chair of physics was held by Ernest Rutherford.
While in Manchester, Bohr learned about the nuclear model of the atom proposed by
Rutherford. To overcome the difficulty associated with the classical collapse of the electron into
the nucleus, Bohr proposed that the orbiting electron could only exist in certain special states of
6

5
motion - called stationary states, in which no electromagnetic radiation was emitted. In these
states, the angular momentum of the electron L takes on integer values of Planck's constant
divided by 2π, denoted by ħ =
h
2π
(pronounced h-bar). In these stationary states, the electron
angular momentum can take on values ħ, 2ħ, 3ħ... but never non-integer values. This is known
as quantization of angular momentum, and was one of Bohr's key hypotheses. Bohr Theory was
very successful in predicting and accounting the energies of line spectra of hydrogen i.e. one
electron system. It could not explain the line spectra of atoms containing more than one
electron. For lack of other theories that can accurately describe a large class of arbitrary
elements to must make definite predictions about the results of future observations, we forcibly
adore the theories like the big bang, which posits that in the beginning of evolution all the
observable galaxies and every speck of energy in the universe was jammed into a very tiny
mathematically indefinable entity called the singularity (or the primeval atom named by the
Catholic priest Georges Lemaitre, who was the first to investigate the origin of the universe
that we now call the big bang). This extremely dense point exploded with unimaginable force,
creating matter and propelling it outward to make the billions of galaxies of our vast universe.
It seems to be a good postulate that the anticipation of a mathematically indefinable entity by a
scientific theory implies that the theory has ruled out. It would mean that the usual approach of
science of building a scientific model could anticipate that the universe must have had a
beginning, but that it could not prognosticate how it had a beginning. Between 1920s and 1940s
there were several attempts, most notably by the British physicist Sir Fred Hoyle (a man who
ironically spent almost his entire professional life trying to disprove the big bang theory) and
his co-workers: Hermann Bondi and Thomas Gold, to avoid the cosmic singularity in terms
of an elegant model that supported the idea that as the universe expanded, new matter was
continually created to keep the density constant on average. The universe didn’t have a
beginning and it continues to exist eternally as it is today. This idea was initially given priority,
but a mountain of inconsistencies with it began to appear in the mid 1960's when observational
discoveries apparently supported the evidence contrary to it. However, Hoyle and his
supporters put forward increasingly contrived explanations of the observations. But the final
blow to it came with the observational discovery of a faint background of microwaves (whose
wavelength was close to the size of water molecules) throughout space in 1965 by Arno Penzias
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6
and Robert Wilson, which was the "the final nail in the coffin of the big bang theory" i.e., the
discovery and confirmation of the cosmic microwave background radiation (which could heat
our food stuffs to only about −270 degrees Centigrade — 3 degrees above absolute zero, and
not very useful for popping corn) in 1965 secured the Big Bang as the best theory of the origin
and evolution of the universe. Though Hoyle and Narlikar tried desperately, the steady state
theory was abandoned.
With many bizarre twists and turns of Humanity’s deepest desire for knowledge, super strings −
a generalized extension of string theory which predicts that all matter consists of tiny vibrating
strings and the precise number of dimensions: ten and has a curious history (It was originally
inventedinthe late1960s inan attempt to find a theoryto describe the strong force). The usual three
dimensions of space − length, width, and breadth − and one of time are extended by six more
spatial dimensions − blinked into existence. Although the mathematics of super strings is so
complicated that, to date, no one even knows the exact equations of the theory (we know only
approximations to these equations, and even the approximate equations are so complicated that
they as yet have been only partially solved) − The best choice we have at the moment is the
super strings, but no one has seen a superstring and it has not been found to agree with
experience and moreover there's no direct evidence that it is the correct description of what the
universe is. Are there only 4 dimensions or could there be more: (x, y, z, t) + w, v, …? Can we
experimentally observe evidence of higher dimensions? What are their shapes and sizes? Are
they classical or quantum? Are dimensions a fundamental property of the universe or an
emergent outcome of chaos by the mere laws of nature (which are shaped by a kind of lens, the
interpretive structure of our human brains)? And if they exist, they could provide the key to
unlock the deepest secrets of nature and Creation itself? We humans look around and only see
four (three spatial dimensions and one time dimension i.e., space has three dimensions, I mean
that it takes three numbers − length, breadth and height− to specify a point. And adding time to
our description, then space becomes space-time with 4 dimensions) – why 4 dimensions? Where
are the other dimensions? Are they rolled the other dimensions up into a space of very small size,
something like a million million million million millionth of an inch − so small that our most
powerful instruments can probe? Up until recently, we have found no evidence for signatures of
extra dimensions. No evidence does not mean that extra dimensions do not exist. However, being
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7
aware that we live in more dimensions than we see is a great prediction of theoretical physics
and also something quite futile even to imagine that we are entering what may be the golden age
of cosmology even our best technology cannot resolve their shape.
For n spatial dimensions: The gravitational force between two massive bodies is: FG =
GMm
rn−1 ,
where G is the gravitational constant (which was first introduced by Sir Isaac Newton (who
had strong philosophical ideas and was appointed president of the Royal Society and became
the first scientist ever to be knighted.) as part of his popular publication in 1687 "Philosophiae
Naturalis Principia Mathematica" and was first successfully measured by the English
physicist Henry Cavendish), M and m are the masses of the two bodies and r is the distance
between them. The electrostatic force between two charges is: FE =
Qq
4πε0rn−1
, where ε0 is the
absolute permittivity of free space, Q and q are the charges and r is the distance between them.
What do we notice about both of these forces? Both of these forces are proportional to
1
rn−1
. So
in a 4 dimensional universe (3 spatial dimensions + one time dimension) forces are proportional
to
1
r2; in the 10 dimensional universe (9 spatial dimensions + one time dimension) they're
proportional to
1
r8. Not surprisingly, at present no experiment is smart enough to solve the
problem of whether or not the universe exists in 10 dimensions or more (i.e., to prove or
disprove both of these forces are proportional to
1
r8
1
r8
mathematically we can imagine many spatial dimensions but the fact that that might be realized
in nature is a profound thing. So far, we presume that the universe exists in extra dimensions
because the mathematics of superstrings requires the presence of ten distinct dimensions in our
universe or because a standard four dimensional theory is too small to jam all the forces into
one mathematical framework. But what we know about the spatial dimensions we live in is
limited by our own abilities to think through many approaches, many of the most satisfying are
scientific.
or proportional to a value > ). However, yet
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8
Among many that we can develop, the most well- known, believed theory at the present is the
standard four dimensional theory. However, development and change of the theory always
occurs as many questions still remain about our universe we live in. And if space was 2
dimensional then force of gravitation between two bodies would have been =
GMm
r
(i.e., the
force of gravitation between two bodies would have been far greater than its present value). And
if the force of gravitation between two bodies would have been far greater than its present value,
the rate of emission of gravitational radiation would have been sufficiently high enough to cause
the earth to spiral onto the Sun even before the sun become a black hole and swallow the earth.
While if space was 1 dimensional then force of gravitation between two bodies would have been
= GMm (i.e., the force of gravitation between two bodies would have been independent of the
distance between them).
The selection principle that we live in a region of the universe that is suitable for intelligent life
which is called the Anthropic principle (a term coined by astronomer Brandon Carter in
1974) would not have seemed to be enough to allow for the development of complicated beings
like us. The universe would have been vastly different than it does now and, no doubt, life as
we know it would not have existed. And if spacial dimensions would have been > than 3, the
force of gravitation between two bodies would have been decreased more rapidly with distance
than it does in three dimensions. (In three dimensions, the gravitational force drops to
1
4
if one
doubles the distance. In four dimensions it would drops to
1
5
, in five dimensions to
1
6
, and so
on.) The significance of this is that the orbits of planets, like the earth, around the sun would
have been unstable to allow for the existence of any form of life and there would been no
intelligent beings to observe the effectiveness of extra dimensions.
Although the proponents of string theory (which occupies a line in space at each moment of
time) predict absolutely everything is built out of strings (which are described as patterns of
vibration that have length but no height or width — like infinitely thin pieces of string), it
could not provide us with an answer of what the string is made up of? And one model of
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9
potential multiple universes called the M Theory − has eleven dimensions, ten of space and
one of time, which we think an explanation of the laws governing our universe that is currently
the only viable candidate for a "theory of everything": the unified theory that Einstein was
looking for, which, if confirmed, would represent the ultimate triumph of human reason−
predicts that our universe is not only one giant hologram.
Many theoretical physicists and scientists of a fast developing science have discussed about
mass annihilation at different times. Even a level one graduate know that when an electron and
a positron approach each other, they annihilate i.e., destroy each other. This process what a
quantum physicists call the mass annihilation. During the process their masses are converted
into energy in accordance with E = mc2
. The energy thus released manifests as γ photons. A
positron has the same mass as an electron but an opposite charge equal to +e. The energy
released in the form of 2γ photons during the annihilation of a positron and an electron is
therefore: E = 2hυ = 2m0c2
where m0 is the rest mass of the electron or positron.
2hυ = 2m0c2
Since υ = c/λ. Therefore:
λ =
h
m0c
But h/ m0c = λC (the Compton wavelength of the electron or positron). Therefore: λ = λC (i.e.,
wavelength of the resulted gamma photon is = Compton wavelength of the annihilated electron
or positron).
λC →
h
m0c
Is it a cutoff at which relativistic quantum field theory becomes crucial for its accurate
description? The Compton wavelength of the electron or positron characterizes the length scale
at which the wave property of an electron or a positron starts to show up. In an interaction that
is characterized by a length scale larger than the Compton wavelength, electron or positron
behaves classically (i.e., no observation of wave nature). For interactions that occur at a length
scale comparable than the Compton wavelength, the wave nature of the electron or positron
begins to take over from classical physics.
11

From the relativistic energy equation:
E = √p2c2 − m0
2
c4
For a photon with no rest mass can still have relativistic energy. If m0 = 0, then
E = pc
The conservation laws:
CONSERVATION OF ELECTRICAL CHARGE:
In any reaction the total charge of all the particles entering the reaction = the total charge of all
the particles after the reaction.
LEPTON CONSERVATION:
In any reaction the sum of lepton numbers before the interaction = the sum of lepton numbers
after the interaction
 electron number
 muon number
 tau number
Muon → muon neutrino + electron + antineutrino
Lepton numbers
Always conserved when a massive lepton decays into smaller ones
Electron number: 0 = 0 + 1 + 0
Muon number: 1 = 1 + 0 + 0
Tau number: 0 = 0 + 0 + 0
12

have far-reaching implications as fundamental to our understanding of the physical world which
we do not see violated. They serve as a strong constraint on any thought-out explanation for
observations of the natural world in any branch of science. These laws govern the behavior of
nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. As a result of the particle-particle
interaction 2 things may happen:
 Particles are attracted or repelled
 The particles are changed into different particles
Thomson's model Rutherford model
The atom is composed of electrons surrounded by a
soup of positive charge to balance the electrons'
negative charges
The negatively charged electrons surround the
nucleus of an atom
Particle physics experiment
CONSERVATION OF BARYON NUMBER:
In any reaction the sum of baryon numbers before the interaction = the sum of baryon numbers after
the interaction
Neutron → proton + electron + antineutrino
At the quark and lepton level:
Down quark → up quark + electron + antineutrino
Prepare the particles
for interaction
Force the particles
to interact
Detect and measure the
products of interaction
13

The threshold temperature of the electron is:
T =
m0c2
kB
and so once the universe has cooled below this temperature the electrons and antielectrons
annihilate each other and the electron become a very rare object − compared to photons.
For particles moving at speeds close to that of light:
KE >> m0c2
mc2
∼ KE
Hence the material particles behave similarly to the radiation photons.
Quarks possess a fundamental property called color which comes in 3 types: red, blue and green
and Antiquarks come in 3 types: antired, antiblue and antigreen. Leptons do not possess color
and so do not feel the strong interaction.
Positron is captured by antiproton and an atom of antihydrogen is formed
mc2 = KE + m0c2
Open universes are spatially infinite in extent and will expand forever.
Closed universes are spatially finite in extent and will re-collapse eventually and have a density >
3H2
8πG
.
14

Cosmic microwave background
Cosmic rays
High energy protons that have their origin in the solar wind produced by the sun
Hot dark matter particles move close to the speed of light.
Cold dark matter particles move at speeds very much slower than light.
Gluons → excitations of the strong field
Photons → excitations of the electromagnetic field
The electromagnetic radiation left over from the hot big bang or the time when the
universe began.
Dark matter
Matter that does not absorb, reflect or emit electromagnetic radiation and so
cannot be astronomically observed directly.
6 flavors of quark: up, down, strange, top and bottom
6 flavors of lepton: electron, electron-neutrino, muon, muon-neutrino, tau and tau-neutrino
15

Quantum electrodynamics
(QED)
Quantum chromodynamics
(QCD)
Proton is not a stable subatomic particle and will decay by a process that does not conserve
baryon number. So far there has been no experimental observation of proton decay.
Leptons can interact via all the fundamental forces except the strong force.
Neutrinos have no electrical charge so they can only interact via the weak force
Inflation predicts that Ω =
8πGρ
3H2
= 1, a prediction that we live in a flat universe − being
conceived out by recent research into the cosmic microwave background and confirmed
by supernova data.
The theory of the electromagnetic force
The theory of the strong force
16

Particles can only spin at a rate that is a multiple of ℏ.
Fermions (quarks and leptons) spin at odd multiples of
ℏ
2
Bosons (photons and gluons) spin at ℏ or
ℎ
𝜋
Supersymmetry
The theory predicts that every fermion particle should have a boson equivalent (e.g. a quark will
have a squark) and that every boson should have an equivalent fermion (e.g. photon and photino).
Grand unified theories (GUTs) → electroweak + strong force
Theories of everything (TOEs) → electroweak + strong force + gravity
The best candidate TOE at the moment is superstring theory − although this is not
fully developed mathematically as yet.
17

• Solid → strong bonds
• Liquid → weak bonds
• Gas → no bonds
The wave-like nature of radiation explains:
Reflection Refraction Diffraction
Interference Doppler effect
A law is universal so far as we have been able to test it, it apply everywhere and at
every time, past, present and future.
The rate of change of velocity = acceleration → caused by force
Object's mass multiplied by its acceleration
Inertia = resistance to change in velocity and it increases with the mass =
Energy
c2
of the object
Increasing the kinetic energy KE =
mv2
2
of the atoms weakens the forces that hold
atoms together. Heating increases the KE of atoms and causes the matter to move
from solid phase (ice) to liquid phase (water) to gas phase (vapor).
Atomic nuclei → combination of quarks
Quantum mechanics
Description of phenomenon on small scales
where classical physics breaks down
18

Big Bang
Collisional excitation
Excitation of an atom can occur when 2 atoms collide.
Due to having twice the charge as a proton, helium
nuclei require twice as much velocity to fuse.
Axion is a hypothetical elementary particle postulated by the Peccei–Quinn theory in 1977 to
explain why charge parity (CP) invariance holds in the strong interactions but not in the weak
interactions.
Prevailing cosmological model explaining the origin of the observable universe supported
by accelerated expansion of the universe, observed cosmic microwave background
radiation and Nucleosynthesis
Charge Parity (CP) Invariance explain the excess of matter over antimatter
19

Spheres of Earth
 Lithosphere – Rock
 Atmosphere – Air
 Hydrosphere – Water
 Biosphere – Life
Claudius Ptolemy
Edwin Hubble
Nicolaus Copernicus
Quintessence is a theory that allows the cosmological constant " Λ " to vary with time.
Earth-centered Cosmology
Sun-centered Cosmology
Big Bang Cosmology
We have little idea of its
physical nature.
20

Universe: Open, closed, or flat?
Three possibilities:
Open
 Negative curvature
 Infinite in extent
 Will expand forever (not enough matter to halt expansion → Big Freeze)
Closed
 Positive curvature
 Finite in extent
 Will collapse (enough matter to halt expansion → Big Crunch)
Flat
 In essence, no curvature
 Infinite in extent
 Expansion will stop at infinite time
 Big Bang theory: universe created from dense primeval fireball.
 Steady state theory: matter continuously created with net constant density.
21

The minimum velocity that a moving particle must possess to escape from the gravitational pull
of a star of mass M and radius R and move outward into space is:
vescape = √
2GM
R
where G is the Newtonian gravitational constant. vescape is increased by either adding mass to the
star (raising M) or contracting it (decreasing R).
When vescape = c, then
R → RS =
2GM
c2
Even light cannot escape
The star becomes a black hole
Big Bang model rests on 2 theoretical foundations:
 The general theory of relativity
 The cosmological principle (The universe is both isotropic and homogeneous)
For a black hole of one solar mass: M ∼ 2 × 1030
kg,
RS ∼ 3 km
The electromagnetic and weak interactions lose their
symmetry below 100 GeV
22

Thomson scattering
 Flat universe: A cosmological model in which the average density perfectly matches the
critical density, below which the universe neither expands freely nor contracts back to its
original size.
 Helioseismology: The discipline that studies solar wave oscillations.
 Hubble–Reynolds law:
where I is the surface brightness of the elliptical galaxy at radius R, I0 is the central
brightness and RH is the radius at which the surface brightness of the elliptical galaxy is
diminished by a factor of 1/4.
100 billion stars in Milky Way
10% with planetary systems
1% of planetary systems have habitable planets
The elastic scattering of electromagnetic radiation photon
by a free charged particle when the photon's wavelength
exceeds the particle's Compton wavelength
I =
I0
(1+
R
RH
)2
23

 Induced Compton scattering: Compton scattering caused by an extremely strong
radiation field, as seen in pulsars and compact radio sources.
 Optical double star: When observed via a telescope, two stars that are not physically
connected and are frequently separated by a large distance appear to be close to one
another.
 Radiometric dating: Using a radioactive isotope, a radioisotope dating method can
determine how extremely old something is, such as a fossil, a rock, or a hardwood
remnant.
 r process: The rapid neutron capture method that creates the neutron-rich isotopes of
elements other than iron (approximately from germanium to uranium and possibly further
to at least a few transuranics that are no longer present in the solar system).
 Symbiotic stars: Stars that have characteristics of both cold giants and extremely hot stars.
 Vacuum fluctuation: The phenomenon whereby particle and antiparticle pairs
haphazardly appear and vanish in space and time as a result of the uncertainty principle,
∆E×∆t ≥
ħ
2
. According to the uncertainty principle, a fluctuation ∆E, where ∆E is the energy or
mass × c2
involved in the fluctuation, can continue no longer than ∆t =
ħ
2∆E
.
 Zeeman Effect: When a light source is placed in a strong magnetic field, a spectral line splits
into two or more components that have slightly different frequencies.
Considering the area of an event horizon of a black hole A = 4πRS
2
=
16πG2M2
c4 and taking the derivative of the
equation: A =
16πG2M2
c4 we get: dA =
32πG2M
c4 × dM or
The total energy of the black hole is E = Mc2
, hence dE = dMc2
, and the temperature of the black hole is: TBH =
ħc3
8πkBGM
, so we can write: dE =
dM =
c4dA
32πG2M
ħc3
8πkBGM
×
kBc3dA
4ħG
dE = TBH × dSBH
where SBH is the thermodynamic entropy of the black hole
24

Universe
Mass ≈ 10−27
grams
Size less than 10−16
centimeters
The Electron is Smallest electric charge known.
Olber's Paradox
If the Universe were:
1) infinitely large,
2) infinitely old,
3) filled isotropically with stars,
Then the night sky would not be dark
 Uniform, "Fossil" Light from the Big Bang
 Isotropic (2.7 K everywhere)
 Unpolarized
73% Dark Energy
23% Cold Dark Matter
4% Atoms
Cosmic microwave background
Neutrinos!
(Very low energy: 1.94K → hard to detect)
Unseen energy
accelerating
galaxies
25

Belgian astronomer and cosmologist George Lemaitre proposed the idea that the universe
was expanding in 1927. He named it the "Hypothesis of the primeval atom".
Protons and neutrons combined to make long-lasting helium nuclei when universe was ~ 3
minutes old.
DARK MATTER
One light year → The distance that light travels through space in one year.
NEBULAR MODEL
Matter that does not shine or absorb light, and has therefore
escaped direct detection by electromagnetic transducers like
telescopes, radio antennas, X-ray satellites...
The sun and planets formed from a cloud of gas
and dust that collapsed because of gravity.
26

Hubble's Law:
 More Distant Galaxies Recede Faster
General Theory of Relativity (Albert Einstein 1915)
Describes gravity in terms of the warping of space-time by the presence of mass and energy.
How did it start, and how it is going to end?
dE = − p dV
Volume V of an expanding universe grows, so its energy decreases if pressure p is positive.
Total energy of matter and of gravity (related to the shape and the volume of the universe) is
conserved, but this conservation is somewhat unusual:
The sum of the energy of matter and of the gravitational energy is equal to zero.
Universe
Predicts that gravitational
waves propagate at the
speed of light.
27

"It is said that there is no such thing as a free lunch. But the universe is the ultimate free lunch".
− Alan Guth
Comets are made up of:
 The nucleus
 The coma
 The ion tail
 The dust tail
Planet → derived from a Greek word that means "wanderer ".
QUANTUM FIELD THEORY
Stars moving away = Red shift
Stars moving toward = Blue shift
Greater the shift = faster the speed
Matter is composed out of elementary
particles bound together by forces, mediated
by exchange of other elementary particles.
At the Planck Distances:
Small, Planck-sized Black Holes pop out of vacuum and
disappear within Planck time:
√
ℏG
c5
28

S
How does the universe work? Why does it work that way?
 Observe the universe
 Precise measurements
 Is it testable?
Experimental physics
 Look for abstract ideas
 Mathematical models
 Unified descriptions
Theoretical physics
Supergiant star Core collapse Neutrinos
They are among the most abundant particles in the gigantic Universe, and still are
hard to detect. They're similar to electrons, but they have no electrical charge and
their mass is almost zero, so they interact very little with normal matter as they
stream through the Universe at near light-speed. Billions of them are zipping
through human body right now. Hence, they are also called "ghost particles."
 In 1962, The U.S. Blew Up A Hydrogen Bomb In Space That Was 100 Times More Powerful
Than Hiroshima.
 Astronauts on the International Space Station Witness around 15 Sunrises and 15 Sunsets
Every Day.
 In 1977, We Received A Signal From Deep Space That Lasted 72 Seconds. We Still Don't
Know How Or Where It Came From.
29

Cherenkov radiation
Double Beta Decay:
A nuclear transition in which an initial nucleus (Z, A), with atomic number Z and mass number A decays
to (Z + 2, A) emitting two electrons and two antineutrinos in the process
Type I supernova explosion Type II supernova explosion
Explosion of a smaller star that is being fed
fuel from a companion star
Explosion of a massive star that has run out of
nuclear fuel
Produced by charged particles when they pass through an optically transparent
medium at speeds greater than the speed of light in that medium
Λ
The energy density associated with the empty
space which explains the observed accelerated
expansion of the universe
Cosmological Principle: the universe is the same everywhere and in all directions.
Catastrophic stellar explosion in which so much energy (nearly of the order of 1042
J) is
released that the explosion alone can outshine for weeks an entire galaxy of billions of stars
30

Virtual particle
Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect
Scattering of cosmic microwave background radiation photons by rapidly moving electrons in
the hot gas in clusters of galaxies
Electricity + magnetism → theory of electromagnetism
Electromagnetism + weak interactions + strong interactions
Grand Unification theory
Its energy is less than its rest mass energy
Supersymmetry → a space-time symmetry that would imply the existence of a "superpartner" for every
elementary particle
Our Sun will become a white dwarf
in about five billion years
31

 String theory (the standard description of the gigantic cosmos by replacing all matter and
force particles with just one element: Tiny vibrating string) attempts to resolve the
incompatibility between General theory of Relativity and quantum mechanics and to
unify them.
Redshift Gravitational redshift
A shift to longer wavelengths of spectral lines in the
radiation emitted by an object caused by relative
motion of the emitting object away from the
observer
A shift to longer wavelengths of spectral lines
in the radiation emitted by a body in a
gravitational field
Due to its factor of uncertainty, German physicist Albert Einstein rejected the theory of quantum
mechanics
Quintessence is a hypothetical form of
dark energy which produces an
effective time-dependent cosmic
energy density accompanied by a
sufficiently negative pressure to cause
the accelerated expansion of the
universe.
32

Quark-Gluon Plasma
Atoms are dissociated into elections and nuclei
Mesons are hadronic subatomic particles composed of an equal number of quarks and antiquarks
which do not exist in ordinary matter but have been observed in the laboratory and cosmic rays.
Atomic nuclei are dissociated into protons and neutrons
Protons and neutrons are dissociated into quarks and gluons
This was the case before about a ten thousandth of a second into the hot Big Bang where
atoms were at sufficiently high temperature and density
A sterile neutrino is one that is not paired up with one of the three charged
leptons (electron, muon and tau) in the standard model of particle physics.
Hadron
Particle with strong interactions
33

Mass and energy make space curved
Quarks interact via exchange of gluons
The bending of light passing near massive objects
Giving rise to
Gravitational lensing
Which permits
Discovered by Dennis Walsh, Bob
Carswell and Ray Weymann using
the Kitt Peak National Observatory
2.1 meter telescope
Dust grains account for roughly
1% of the mass of the space
between stars and which obscure
the visible light behind it
Massless particles which carries the strong force
Isotopes are two or more atoms
that have the same number of
protons but different numbers of
neutrons
34

Geocentric Model of the Universe
(Ptolemaic Model)
Earth centered model of the universe
(Earth at the center)
Heliocentric Model of the Universe
(Copernican Model)
Sun centered model of the universe
(Sun at the center)
A cosmic mystery of immense proportions, once seemingly on the verge of solution, has deepened and
left astronomers and astrophysicists more baffled than ever. The crux ... is that the vast majority of the
mass of the universe seems to be missing.
— William J. Broad
[Reporting a Nature article discrediting explanation of invisible mass being due to neutrinos]
When magnifying matter, the fundamental constituents appear to
be point-like. But if we were able to magnify even more, what
would they look like? String theory presents a possibility to unify
particle physics with gravity provided that the particles are string-
like at a length scale of 10−33 m.
– Martin Lübcke
35

If you leave at Age of 15 in a Spaceship at Speed of Light and Spends 5 Years in Space,
when you get back on Earth you will 20 Years old. But all of your Friends who were 15
when you Left, will be 65 Years Old at that Time.
If you fall into black hole, you will able to see both the Universe
beginning and ending due to Time Dilation.
If not for a force called gravity, we would all go zinging off into outer space.
The faster you move, the shorter
and the heavier you are. And that is
the theory of relativity.
Did you know that the static on your television is caused by
radiation left over from the Big Bang?
Motion and gravity makes the clock tick slower.
36

BIG BANG THEORY
Describes earliest moments of Universe
Beginning of Universe
Beginning of TIME
 Flatness problem: Why is the density in the Universe almost critical?
 Horizon problem: Why is the large scale of the Universe so smooth?
Einstein presented his general theory of relativity in 1916, but
for an entire century nobody could find physical proof of black
holes. In 2016, scientists finally detected gravitational waves
that emitted from two black holes colliding, proving that such
weird things not only exist, but that Einstein was right all along.
A human being is part of the whole, called by us “Universe”; a part limited in
time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as
something separated from the rest—a kind of optical delusion of his
consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our
personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must
be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to
embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is
able to achieve this completely but the striving for such achievement is, in
itself, a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security.
— Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity was
proved in 1919 during a solar eclipse.
It took 15 years for Einstein's
Relativity theory to make him
famous
37

In 1927, a Belgian cosmologist and a Catholic priest, GEORGES LEMAITRE proposed
the Big Bang theory to reconstruct the 13.9 billion year story of the universe
A theory of cosmology in which the
expansion of the universe is presumed to
have begun with a primeval explosion
When an object is receding, its light gets stretched (redshifted). When the
object is approaching, its light gets compressed (blueshifted).
Albert Einstein's general theory of
relativity suggests that the sun's
gravity bends the path of light from
distant stars. It's a testable
prediction, but only during a total
solar eclipse.
Albert Einstein Did Not Win the Nobel Prize for
His Theory of Relativity in 1921 but For the
Photoelectric Effect
38

"I found it very ugly indeed that the field law of gravitation should be composed of two
logically independent terms which are connected by addition. About the justification of such
feelings concerning logical simplicity it is difficult to argue. I cannot help but feel it strongly
and I am unable to believe that such an ugly thing should be realised in nature."
− Albert Einstein, in a Sept. 26, 1947, letter to Georges Lema
Robert A. Millikan, Georges Lemaitre and Albert Einstein at California Institute of Technology, January 1933
39

Dark matter (blue) in galaxies, dissociated from plasma (pink)
Although the Cosmic microwave
background is nearly uniform, there are tiny
fluctuations in its temperature due to
variations in the density of the early
universe. These tiny fluctuations reveal the
early stages of galactic structure formation.
40

When a particle and its antiparticle annihilate each other − release a pair of high energy
gamma photons.
Would the tidal forces kill an astronaut?
Since gravity weakens with distance, the earth
pulls on your head with less force than it pulls
on your feet, which are a meter or two closer to
the earth's center. The difference is so tiny we
cannot feel it, but an astronaut near the surface
of a black hole would be literally torn apart.
For small black holes whose
Schwarzschild radius is much
closer to the singularity, the
tidal forces would kill even
before the astronaut reaches
the event horizon.
41

An experiment is a question which science poses to Nature, and a
measurement is the recording of Nature's answer.
−MAX PLANCK, 1858 TO 1947
The black holes of nature are the most perfect macroscopic objects there are in the
universe: the only elements in their construction are our concepts of space and time.
− Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
If the production of
microscopic black holes is
feasible, can the LHC
create a black hole that will
eventually eat the world?
42

Galaxy Earth
𝛂𝛂 Centauri Earth
Sun Earth
The Milky Way consists of hundreds of billions of stars and has a black hole at its center.
The Einsteinian theory of general relativity provides the framework to study the large-scale
structure of the Universe
Light takes billions of years to reach us from a galaxy
Light takes 4.3 years to reach us from 𝛂𝛂 Centauri
Light takes 8 minutes to reach us from the sun
43

Sun emits 2 ×1038
neutrinos per second but only 30 neutrinos are interacting in a person per year
Simulation of the map of the cosmic microwave background that is being obtained by NASA's
Microwave Anisotropy Probe (MAP) shows that the CMB is not perfectly smooth. But has
Ripples in it.
44

The entire electromagnetic spectrum — from radio waves to gamma rays, most of the light in the universe
— resembles nothing but transverse waves of energy E = hc/λ, which in turn are vibrating Maxwell force
fields differing only in their wavelength λ = h/p .
String Theory
Different vibrations → Different particles
String combinations → Particle interactions
Maxwell's equations for electromagnetism
45

Albert Einstein and J. Robert Oppenheimer at Caltech in 1939. They probably were, at
that moment, discussing the prevention of black holes by neutron-star formation.
In life, everything is relative - except Einstein's theory: Leonid S. Sukhorukov
46

Decoding the quantum mechanics to find the solution to the Schrodinger equation for the hydrogen
atom in arbitrary electric and magnetic fields. If we can, we know everything about the system.
Science is a game—but a game with reality, a game with sharpened knives … If a man cuts a
picture carefully into 1000 pieces, you solve the puzzle when you reassemble the pieces into a
picture; in the success or failure, both your intelligences compete. In the presentation of a
scientific problem, the other player is the good Lord. He has not only set the problem but also
has devised the rules of the game—but they are not completely known, half of them are left for
you to discover or to deduce. The experiment is the tempered blade which you wield with
success against the spirits of darkness—or which defeats you shamefully. The uncertainty is how
many of the rules God himself has permanently ordained, and how many apparently are caused
by your own mental inertia, while the solution generally becomes possible only through freedom
from its limitations.
— Erwin Schrödinger
47

Thermal energy
Conservative force Non-Conservative force
The total work done in moving a particle from
one point to another is independent of the path
taken by the particle.
The total work done in moving a particle from
one point to another is dependent of the path
taken by the particle.
Translational Rotational
Force = mass × acceleration Torque = moment of inertia × angular acceleration
For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
(Here action and reaction refer to forces.)
For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
(Here action and reaction refer to torques.)
The energy contained within a system that is responsible for its temperature
Heat
The flow of thermal
energy
Joule = Newton × meter =
Kilogram × (meter)2
(second)2
"For those who want some proof that physicists are human, the proof is in the idiocy of all the different units
which they use for measuring energy."
― Richard P. Feynman
1 horsepower = 33,000 foot pounds per minute
1 horsepower = 550 foot pounds per second
 Gravitational
 Electric
 Elastic
 Friction
 Air resistance
 Tension in cord
Power = Force × velocity Power = Torque × angular velocity
The object will also move in a straight line in the absence of a net external force.
Heliocentrism
In the center of all rests the Sun
48

Pauli's letter of the 4th of December 1930
Dear Radioactive Ladies and Gentlemen,
As the bearer of these lines, to whom I graciously ask you to listen, will explain to you in more detail,
how because of the "wrong" statistics of the N and Li6
nuclei and the continuous beta spectrum, I have hit
upon a desperate remedy to save the "exchange theorem" of statistics and the law of conservation of
energy. Namely, the possibility that there could exist in the nuclei electrically neutral particles, that I wish
to call neutrons, which have spin 1/2 and obey the exclusion principle and which further differ from light
quanta in that they do not travel with the velocity of light. The mass of the neutrons should be of the same
order of magnitude as the electron mass and in any event not larger than 0.01 proton masses. The
continuous beta spectrum would then become understandable by the assumption that in beta decay a
neutron is emitted in addition to the electron such that the sum of the energies of the neutron and the
electron is constant...
49

I agree that my remedy could seem incredible because one should have seen these neutrons much earlier
if they really exist. But only the one who dare can win and the difficult situation, due to the continuous
structure of the beta spectrum, is lighted by a remark of my honoured predecessor, Mr Debye, who told
me recently in Bruxelles: "Oh, It's well better not to think about this at all, like new taxes". From now on,
every solution to the issue must be discussed. Thus, dear radioactive people, look and judge.
Unfortunately, I cannot appear in Tubingen personally since I am indispensable here in Zurich because of
a ball on the night of 6/7 December. With my best regards to you, and also to Mr Back.
Your humble servant,
W. Pauli
Small amounts of antimatter constantly rain down on Earth in
the form of cosmic rays and energetic particles from space.
The physicists Paul Dirac, Wolfgang Pauli and Rudolf Peierls, c 1953
50

Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity do not work together What about:
• Before the Big Bang?
• Black holes?
Neither theory can predict what happened…
Cosmic Gall
by John Updike (1932−2009)
Neutrinos, they are very small.
They have no charge and have no mass
And do not interact at all.
The earth is just a silly ball
To them, through which they simply pass,
Like dustmaids down a drafty hall
Or photons through a sheet of glass.
They snub the most exquisite gas,
Ignore the most substantial wall,
Cold-shoulder steel and sounding brass,
Insult the stallion in his stall,
And, scorning barriers of class,
Infiltrate you and me! Like tall
And painless guillotines, they fall
Down through our heads into the grass.
At night, they enter at Nepal
And pierce the lover and his lass
From underneath the bed - you call
It wonderful; I call it crass.
51

The objects of different masses are accelerated towards the earth at the same rate, but with
different forces.
Gravitational lensing: The big galaxy cluster at the center of the image acts like the lens of a
telescope. Any light from a distant object would converge as it passes around the galaxy. When
we gaze at the distant galaxy, we see a ring like pattern called Einstein ring, an optical illusion
caused by general relativity.
Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson
and the historic Bell Labs horn
antenna, discoverers of the relic
Cosmic Microwave Background
of the Big Bang.
"Gravity is the force that rules the Universe. To understand its
workings, to the finest degree, is to understand the very nature of our
celestial home."
— M. Bartusiak in Einstein's Unfinished Symphony
52

Mechanics
Kinematics The science of describing the motion of objects
Dynamics The science of describing the motion of objects under the action of forces
Statics The branch of mechanics dealing with objects at rest or in equilibrium
Motion
Motion Forces Energy
Energetics
A branch of mechanics that deals primarily with
energy and its transformations
 Translational motion: Motion that results in a change of location
 Oscillatory motion: To and fro motion of the object about its fixed position
 Rotational motion: Motion that occurs when an object spins
 Random motion: Kind of motion where an object moves in any direction and the direction keeps changing continuously
Who would set a limit to the mind?
Who would dare assert that we
know all there is to be known?
― Galileo Galilei
53

Kuiper belt ‒ a region of the Solar System extending from the orbit of Neptune (at 30 AU) to
approximately 50 AU from the Sun (consists mainly of small bodies or remnants from the Solar
System's formation).
Gamma ray bursts may happen when a neutron star falls into another neutron
star or black hole. The resulting explosion sends out particles and radiation
all over the spectrum.
The phases of Venus, observed by Galileo in 1610
54

Galileo's drawing of the Moon
55

A virtual-particle pair has a wave function that predicts that both particles will have opposite spins.
But if one particle falls into the black hole, it is impossible to predict with certainty the spin of the
remaining particle.
− S. W. Hawking
The Collider Detector at Fermi lab where the top quark was discovered
56

Chaos
Chaos Theory
Deal with nonlinear things that are effectively impossible to predict or control, like turbulence, weather,
the stock market, our brain states, and so on.
v =
dx
dt
ω =
dθ
dt
How fast object moves
How fast object spins
Translatory motion
 Rectilinear motion: motion in a straight line
 Curvilinear motion: motion in a curved path
 Uniform motion: The motion of a object along a straight line with steady speed
 Non-Uniform motion: The motion of a object along a straight line with variable speed
Zero acceleration
Non-Zero acceleration
Complete disorder and confusion
The principles and mathematical operations
Quantum mechanics is not chaotic − but
probabilistic.
Quantum chaos is a branch of physics which is concerned with establishing
the relation between chaotic systems quantum systems.
The correspondence principle
Classical mechanics is the classical
limit of quantum mechanics
Classical probability is a
simple form of probability
that has equal odds of
something happening.
57

The full sky map made by the COBE satellite DMR instrument, showing evidence for the wrinkles in time.
The different frequencies of light appear as different colors.
"The area formula for the entropy — or number of
internal states — of a black hole suggests that
information about what falls into a black hole
may be stored like that on a record, and played
back as the black hole evaporates."
− S.W. Hawking
Black Hole in the universe
58

When we place two long parallel uncharged plates close to each other, virtual particles outside
the plates exerts more pressure than the virtual particles inside the plates, and hence the plates
are attracted to each other, which we call the "Casimir effect."
A sudden emission of superhot gas containing charged particles which is interpreted as a massive
solar super storm can narrowly blast the Earth back into the Dark Ages (by damaging satellite
microchips and disrupting power grids).
Dark matter was first proposed by FRITZ ZWICKY in 1933.
Although he proposed this almost a century ago, dark matter is
still a mystery that everyone yearns to resolve.
59

Why the Quarks feel the strong force, leptons do not?
If the leptons would have felt the strong force, then they would have combined to form different
particles.
The entire picture of Particle Physics would have been quite different.
The Drake Equation
N = R*· fp· ne· fl· fi· fc· L
• N = number of civilizations with which humans could communicate
• R* = the rate at which stars are born in the galaxy,
• fp= the fraction of these stars that have planets,
• ne= the number of planets for each star that have the conditions for life,
• fl = the fraction of planets that actually develop life,
• fi = the fraction that develop intelligent life,
• fc = the fraction that are willing and able to communicate, and
• L = the expected lifetime of a civilization.
Long-duration gamma ray bursts are associated
with the deaths of massive stars in a specific kind
of explosion called a supernova.
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 Motion is the change of state of an object.
The larger p = mv is, the harder it is to stop the object.
The force of gravitation between the sun and the earth:
FGsun−earth
=
GMsunmearth
r2
The force of gravitation between the earth and the moon:
The equation v = √ghgives the speed v with which apple hits the ground after falling from a tree.
The velocity is proportional only to the square root of the height.
Galileo's principle of relativity
It is impossible by mechanical means to say whether we are moving or staying at rest
FGsun−earth
=
(6.673×10−11) (2×1030) (6×1024)
(1.5×1011) (1.5 ×1011)
= 3.557 × 1022
N
Entropy measures the degree to which
energy is mixed up inside a system.
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FGearth−moon
=
GMearthmmoon
r2
FGearth−moon
=
(6.673×10−11) (6×1024) (7.4 ×1022)
(3.84×105) (3.84 ×105)
= 2 × 1026
N
FGsun−earth
FGearth−moon
= 0.00017785 FGsun−earth
< FGearth−moon
Titius-Bode Law:
The distance d of the nth
planet from the Sun is given by:
The integer take values n = − ∞ for mercury, n = 0 for Venus, n = 1 for the Earth, and so on.
d = a + 2n
b with a = 0.4AU and b = 0.3AU
Planet n Actual distance in AU Predicted distance in AU
Mercury − ∞ 0.387 0.4
Venus 0 0.723 0.7
Earth 1 1.00 1.0
Mars 2 1.52 1.6
Planetoids 3 2.2 to 3.2 2.8
Jupiter 4 5.20 5.2
Saturn 5 9.55 10.0
Uranus 6 19.2 19.6
Neptune 7 30.1 38.8
Pluto 8 39.5 77.2
Predicted the amount of
space between the planets
Led Johann Titius to predict the existence of
another planet between Mars and Jupiter in
what we now recognize as the asteroid belt.
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Refraction
Waves change direction when they change medium
When waves add up or cancel each other out: they interpenetrate each other.
Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle:
△p ×△x ≥
ℏ
2
m△v × △x ≥
ℏ
2
△v ≥
ℏ
2 m △𝑥
The position and the velocity of
a subatomic particle cannot both
be measured exactly, at the
same time − even in theory.
Only for the exceedingly small masses of
atoms and subatomic particles the product
of the uncertainties becomes significant.
△p ×△x ≥
ℏ
2
△k ×△x ≥
1
2
△p =
h
△λ
= ℏ△k
k = angular wave number
It is impossible to specify both the position of a light signal and its wavelength with full precision
Loschmidt's number
The number of gas molecules in one cubic centimeter at 0° C and one atmosphere pressure
2.687 × 1019
molecules per cubic centimeter
63

Did you know that
Electric and magnetic forces are far stronger than gravity, but remain unnoticeable because every
macroscopic body contain almost equal numbers of positive and negative electrical charges (i.e.,
the electric and magnetic forces nearly cancel each other out).
By analyzing the Stellar Spectrum, one can
determine both the temperature of a star and the
composition of its atmosphere.
The wavelength of a wave is the distance
between successive peaks or troughs
Niels Bohr imagined the atom as
consisting of electron waves of
wavelength λ = h/mv endlessly
circling atomic nuclei. In his
picture, only orbits with
circumferences corresponding to
an integral multiple of electron
wavelengths could survive
without destructive interference
(i.e., r = nℏ/mv could survive
without destructive interference).
Bohr and Margrethe Nørlund on their engagement in 1910
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The 100-inch Hooker telescope at Mount Wilson Observatory
Light waves are similar to water waves. Both
are characterized by their wavelength, speed
and frequency (or period).
To make a planet move at a high speed in a small orbit requires a strong gravitational force.
To make the same planet to move at a low speed in a large orbit requires only a weak gravitational force.
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Are there elementary particles that have not yet been observed, and, if so, which ones are
they and what are their properties?
The unification of so called weak nuclear forces with the Maxwell
equations is what known as the Electro weak theory. And the
electroweak theory and QCD together constitutes the so called
Standard Model of particle physics, which describes everything
except gravity.
When a wave source moves toward an observer, its waves appear to have a shorter
wavelength. If the wave source moves away, its waves appear to have a longer
wavelength. This is called the Doppler Effect.
Black Holes have no Hair, Says
no Hair Theorem:
Wait, What? Explaining the Black Hole
The answer is then simple.
Mass, Charge, and Angular Momentum
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I'm a particle or a wave? I'm
not sure about that..
The unification of two is
the duality of one...
Material, such as gas, dust and other stellar
debris that approach the black hole prevent
themselves from falling into it by forming a
flattened band of spinning matter around the
event horizon called the accretion disk. And
since the spinning matter accelerates to
tremendous speeds (v ≈ c) by the huge gravity of
the black hole the heat and powerful X-rays and
gamma rays are released into the universe.
The total solar eclipse of July 11, 1991,
photographed from near La Paz, Mexico. The hot
outer atmosphere of the Sun, the corona, is clearly
visible
Atom Structure
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Like the formation of bubbles of steam in boiling water − Great many holograms of possible
shapes and inner dimensions were created, started off in every possible way, simply because of
an uncaused accident called spontaneous creation. Our universe was one among a zillion of
holograms simply happened to have the right properties − with particular values of the physical
constants right for stars and galaxies and planetary systems to form and for intelligent beings to
emerge due to random physical processes and develop and ask questions, Who or what governs
the laws and constants of physics? Are such laws the products of chance or a mere cosmic
accident or have they been designed? How do the laws and constants of physics relate to the
support and development of life forms? Is there any knowable existence beyond the apparently
observed dimensions of our existence? However, M theory sounds so bizarre and unrealistic
that there is no experiment that can credit its validity. Nature has not been quick to pay us any
hints so far. That's the fact of it; grouped together everything we know about the history of the
universe is a fascinating topic for study, and trying to understand the meaning of them is one of
the key aspects of modern cosmology— which is rather like plumbing, in a way.
And as more space comes into existence, more of the dark energy (an invisible and unexpected
cosmological force which was a vanishingly small slice of the pie 13.7 billion years ago, but
today it is about three times as much as visible matter and dark matter put together and it
eclipses matter and hides in empty space and works for the universe’s expansion i.e., pushes
the edges of the universe apart − a sort of anti-gravity) would appear. Unfortunately, no one at
the present time has any understanding of where this "undetected substance" comes from or
what exactly it is. Is it a pure cosmological constant (an arbitrary parameter from general
relativity, has been taken to be zero for most of the twentieth century for the simple and
adequate reason that this value was consistent with the data) or is it a sign of extra dimensions?
What is the cause of the dark energy? Why does it exist at all? Why is it so different from the
other energies? Why is the composition of dark energy so large (of about 73% of our universe −
we only make up 0.03% of the universe which include stars orbiting their galaxies much too
fast to be held in orbit merely by the gravitational attraction of the observed galactic stars )?
String theory (a cutting-edge research that has integrated [Einstein's] discoveries into a
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quantum universe with numerous hidden dimensions coiled into the fabric of the cosmos
- dimensions whose geometry may well hold the key to some of the most profound
questions ever posed) gives us a clue, but there’s no definitive answer. Well, all know is that
it is a sort of cosmic accelerator pedal or an invisible energy what made the universe bang and
if we held it in our hand; we couldn't take hold of it. In fact, it would go right through our
fingers, go right through the rock beneath our feet and go all the way to the majestic swirl of
the heavenly stars. It would reverse direction and come back from the stately waltz of orbiting
binary stars through the intergalactic night all the way to the edge of our feet and go back and
forth. How near are we to understand the dark energy? The question lingers, answer
complicates and challenges everyone who yearns to resolve. And once we understand the dark
energy, can we understand the birth and the death of everything in the mankind's observable
universe, from a falling apple to the huge furnace (that burns billions of pounds of matter
each second and reaches temperatures of tens of millions of degrees at its core) and the earth
(standing at the center of the universe, surrounded by eight spheres carrying all the known
heavenly bodies) is also an?
Entropy (a thermodynamic quantity -- first introduced by the German physicist Rudolf Clausius
(1822−1888) − a measure of untidiness in a system and a measure of how much information a
system contains) is defined as: S = kB ln {number of states} which, for N particles of the same
type, will be:
S = kB ln {(no of one-particle states) N}
S = kB N ln {a not-too-big number}
S = kB N
This means: the more particles, the more disorder. The entire universe is getting more
disordered and chaotic with time i.e., the entropy of the universe is increasing toward greater
disorder. And this observation is elevated to the status of a law, the so called Second law of
thermodynamics (which was discovered by the great German physicist, Ludwig Boltzmann
who laid down the second law of thermodynamics, committed suicide in 1906, in part because
of the intense ridicule he faced while promoting the concept of atoms) i.e., the universe will
tend toward a state of maximum entropy, such as a uniform gas near absolute zero (at this point,
the atoms themselves almost come to a halt) and that there is nothing we have to do about it. No
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matter how advanced our conditions would be right for the generation of thoughts to predict
things more or less, even if not in a simplest way, it can never squash the impending threat of
the second law of thermodynamics (that will eventually result in the destruction of all
intelligent life) nor it can bring us close to the answer of why was the entropy ever low in the
first place. This makes cosmology (the study of the universe as a whole, including its birth and
perhaps its ultimate fate) a bit more complicated than we would have hoped.
Explaining everything ... is one of the greatest challenges we have ever faced. Hence, it has
been an endeavor of science to find a single theory which could explain everything, where
every partial theory that we've read so far (in school) is explained as a case of the one cogent
theory within some special circumstances. Despite being a mystery skeptic, the Unified Field
Theory (which Albert Einstein sought [but never realized] during the last thirty years of his
life and capable of describing nature's forces within a single, all-encompassing, coherent
framework) presents an infinite problem. This is embarrassing. Because we now realize before
we can work for the theory of everything, we have to work for the ultimate laws of nature. At
the present, we’re clueless as to what the ultimate laws of nature really are. Are there new laws
beyond the apparently observed dimensions of our universe? Do all the fundamental laws of
nature unify? At what scale? Ultimately, however, it is likely that answers to these questions in
the form of unified field theory may be found over the next few years or by the end of the
century we shall know can there really be a complete unified theory that would presumably
solve our problems? Or are we just chasing a mirage? Is the ultimate unified theory so
compelling, that it brings about its own existence? However, if we − a puny and insignificant
on the scale of the cosmos − do discover a unified field theory, it should in time be
understandable in broad principle by everyone, not just a few people. Then we shall all be able
to take part in the discussion of the questions of how and when did the universe begin? Was the
universe created? Has this universe been here forever or did it have a beginning at the Big
Bang? If the universe was not created, how did it get here? If the Big Bang is the reason there is
something rather than nothing, and then before the Big Bang there was NOTHING and then
suddenly we got A HUGE AMOUNT OF ENERGY where did it come from? What powered
the Big Bang? What is the fate of the Universe? Is the universe heading towards a Big Freeze
(the end of the universe when it reaches near absolute zero), a Big Rip, a Big Crunch (the final
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collapse of the universe), or a Big Bounce? Or is it part of an infinitely recurring cyclic model?
Is inflation a law of Nature? Why the universe started off very hot and cooled as it expanded? Is
the Standard Big Bang Model right? Or is it the satisfactory explanation of the evidence which
we have and therefore merits our provisional acceptance? Is our universe finite or infinite in
size and content? What lies beyond the existing space and time? What was before the event of
creation? Why is the universe so uniform on a large scale (even though uncertainty principle −
which fundamentally differentiates quantum from classic reasoning− discovered by the German
physicist Werner Heisenberg in 1927 − implies that the universe cannot be completely
uniform because there are some uncertainties or fluctuations in the positions and velocities of
the particles)? Why does it look the same at all points of space and in all directions? In
particular, why is the temperature of the cosmic microwave background radiation so nearly
the same when we look in different directions? Why are the galaxies distributed in clumps and
filaments? When were the first stars formed, and what were they like? Or if string theory
(which is part of a grander synthesis: M-theory and have captured the hearts and minds of much
of the theoretical physics community while being apparently disconnected from any realistic
chance of definitive experimental proof) is right i.e., every particle is a tiny one dimensional
vibrating string of Planck length (the smallest possible length i.e., Planck time multiplied by
the speed of light)?
Why most of the matter in the Universe is dark? Is anthropic principle a natural
coincidence? If we find the answers to them, it would be the ultimate triumph of human
reason i.e., we might hold the key to address the eternal conundrum of some of the most
difficult issues in modern physics. Yet those difficult issues are also the most exciting, for
those who address big, basic questions: What do we really know about the universe? How do
we know it? Where did the universe come from, and where is it going? It would bring to an
end a long and glorious lesson in the history of mankind's intellectual struggle to understand
the universe. For then we would know whether the laws of physics started off the universe in
such an incomprehensible way or not. Chances are that these questions will be answered
long after we’re gone, but there is hope that the beginnings of those answers may come within
the next few years, as some aspects of bold scientific theory that attempts to reconcile all the
physical properties of our universe into a single unified and coherent mathematical framework
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begin to enter the realm of theoretical and experimental formulation.
Up until recently, a multitude of revolutions in various domains, from literature to experimental
science, has prevailed over established ideas of modern age in a way never seen before. But we
do not know about what is the exact mechanism by which an implosion of a dying star becomes
a specific kind of explosion called a supernova. All that we know is that: When a massive star
runs out of nuclear fuel, the gravitational contraction continues increasing the density of matter.
And since the internal pressure is proportional to the density of matter, therefore the internal
pressure will continually increase with the density of matter. And at a certain point of
contraction, internal pressure will be very much greater than gravitational binding pressure and
will be sufficiently high enough to cause the star to explode, spraying the manufactured
elements into space that would flung back into the gas in the galaxy and would provide some of
the raw material for the next generation of stars and bodies that now orbit the sun as planets like
the Earth. The total energy released would outshine all the other stars in the galaxy,
approaching the luminosity of a whole galaxy (will nearly be the order of 10 to the power of 42
Joules). In the aftermath of the supernova, we find a totally dead star, a neutron star ‒ a cold
star, supported by the exclusion principle repulsion between neutrons ‒ about the size of
Manhattan (i.e., ten to 50 times the size of our sun).
Why are there atoms, molecules, solar systems, and galaxies? What powered them into
existence? How accurate are the physical laws and equations, which control them? Why do the
Fundamental Constants of Nature have the precise values they do? The answers have always
seemed well beyond the reach of Dr. Science since the dawn of humanity − until now (some
would claim the answer to these questions is that there is a transcendent God (a cosmic
craftsman – a transcendent being than which no being could be more virtuous) who chose to
create the universe that way according to some perfect mathematical principle. Then the
question merely reflects to that of who or what created the God). But the questions are still
the picture in the mind of many scientists today who do not spend most of their time worrying
about these questions, but almost worry about them some of the time. All that science could say
is that: The universe is as it is now. But it could not explain why it was, as it was, just after the
Big Bang. This is a disaster for science. It would mean that science alone, could not predict
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how the universe began. Every attempt is made to set up the connection between theoretical
predictions and experimental results but some of the experimental results throw cold water on
the theoretical predictions.
Back in 1700s, people thought the stars of our galaxy structured the universe, that the galaxy
was nearly static, and that the universe was essentially unexpanding with neither a beginning
nor an end to time. A situation marked by difficulty with the idea of a static and unchanging
universe, was that according to the Newtonian theory of gravitation, each star in the
universe supposed to be pulled towards every other star with a force that was weaker the less
massive the stars and farther they were to each other. It was this force caused all the stars fall
together at some point. So how could they remain static? Wouldn't they all collapse in on
themselves? A balance of the predominant attractive effect of the stars in the universe was
required to keep them at a constant distance from each other. Einstein was aware of this
problem. He introduced a term so-called cosmological constant in order to hold a static
universe in which gravity is a predominant attractive force. This had an effect of a repulsive
force, which could balance the predominant attractive force. In this way it was possible to
allow a static cosmic solution. Enter the American astronomer Edwin Hubble. In 1920s he
began to make observations with the hundred inch telescope on Mount Wilson and through
detailed measurements of the spectra of stars he found something most peculiar: stars moving
away from each other had their spectra shifted toward the red end of the spectrum in
proportion to the distance between them (This was a Doppler effect of light: Waves of any
sort − sound waves, light waves, water waves − emitted at some frequency by a moving
object are perceived at a different frequency by a stationary observer. The resulting shift in the
spectrum will be towards its red part when the source is moving away and towards the blue
part when the source is getting closer). And he also observed that stars were not uniformly
distributed throughout space, but were gathered together in vast collections called galaxies and
nearly all the galaxies were moving away from us with recessional velocities that were
roughly dependent on their distance from us. He reinforced his argument with the formulation
of his well- known Hubble's law. The observational discovery of the stretching of the space
carrying galaxies with it completely shattered the previous image of a static and unchanging
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cosmos (i.e., the motivation for adding a term to the equations disappeared, and Einstein
rejected the cosmological constant a greatest mistake).
We story telling animals (who TALK ABOUT THE nature of the universe and discuss such
questions as whether it has a beginning or an end) often claim that we know so much more
about the universe. But we must beware of overconfidence. We have had false dawns before.
At the beginning of this century, for example, it was thought that earth was a perfect sphere,
but latter experimental observation of variation of value of "g" over the surface of earth
confirmed that earth is not a perfect sphere. Today there is almost universal agreement that
space itself is stretching, carrying galaxies with it, though we are experimentally trying to
answer whether cosmic [expansion will] continue forever or slow to a halt, reverse itself [and]
lead to a cosmic implosion. However, personally, we’re sure that the accelerated expansion
began with a state of infinite compression and primeval explosion called the hot Big Bang.
But will it expand forever or there is a limit beyond which the average matter density exceeds
a hundredth of a billionth of a billionth of a billionth (10−29
) of a gram per cubic centimeter so-
called critical density (the density of the universe where the expansion of the universe is
poised between eternal expansion and recollapse)... then a large enough gravitational force
will permeate the cosmos to halt and reverse the expansion or the expansion and contraction
are evenly balanced? We're less sure about that because events cannot be predicted with
complete accuracy but that there is always a degree of uncertainty.
The picture of standard model of the Forces of Nature (a sensible and successive quantum-
mechanical description developed by 1970s physicists) is in good agreement with all the
observational evidence that we have today and remains consistent with all the measured
properties of matter made in our most sophisticated laboratories on Earth and observed in
space with our most powerful telescopes. Nevertheless, it leaves a number of important
questions unanswered like the unanswered questions given in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the
Galaxy (by Douglas Adams): Why are the strengths of the fundamental forces
(electromagnetism, weak and strong forces, and gravity) are as they are? Why do the force
particles have the precise masses they do? Do these forces really become unified at
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sufficiently high energy? If so how? Are there unobserved fundamental forces that explain
other unsolved problems in physics? Why is gravity so weak? May because of hidden extra
dimensions? Very likely, we are missing something important that may seem as obvious to us
as the earth orbiting the sun – or perhaps as ridiculous as a tower of tortoises. Only time
(whatever that may be) will tell.
The theory of evolution (which predicts: that the use of antiviral or antibacterial agents would
result in the emergence of resistant strains. This principle is, of course, a mainstay of
contemporary medicine and asserts that the natural selection is a choice of stable forms and a
rejection of unstable ones. And the variation within a species occurs randomly, and that the
survival or extinction of each organism depends upon its ability (an internal force or tendency)
to adapt to the environment) lined up pictures of apes and humans and claimed that humans
evolved from apes (i.e., the chimpanzee and the human share about 99.5 per cent of their
evolutionary history). This spilled out onto the corridors of the academy and absolutely rocked
Victorian England to the extent that people just barely raised their voice contradicting the
biblical account of creation in the lecture hall rips of the architrave. And despite more than a
century of digging straight down and passing through the fossil layers, the fossil record remains
maddeningly sparse and provides us with no evidence that show evolutionary transition
development of one species into another species. However, we are convinced that the theory
of evolution, especially the extent to which it’s been believed with blind faith, which may turn
to be one of the great fairy tales for adults in the history books of the future. Like raisins in
expanding dough, galaxies that are further apart are increasing their separation more than nearer
ones. And as a result, the light emitted from distant galaxies and stars is shifted towards the red
end of the spectrum. Observations of galaxies indicate that the universe is expanding: the
distance D between almost any pair of galaxies is increasing at a rate V = HD − beautifully
explained by the Hubble’s law (the law that agrees with Einstein's theory of an expanding
universe). However, controversy still remains on the validity of this law. Andromeda, for
example, for which the Hubble relation does not apply. And quantum theory (The
revolutionary theory of the last century clashed with everyday experience which has proved
enormously successful, passing with flying colors the many stringent laboratory tests to which
it has been subjected for almost a hundred years) predicts that entire space is not continuous
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18
and infinite but rather quantized and measured in units of quantity called Planck length (10 −33
cm – the length scale found at the big bang in which the gravitational force was as strong as the
other forces and at this scale, space-time was "foamy," with tiny bubbles and wormholes
appearing and disappearing into the vacuum). However, at the present there is no conclusive
evidence in favor of quantization of space and time and moreover nobody knows why no
spatial or time interval shorter than the Planck values exists?
For length: Planck length (a hundred billion billion times [1020
] smaller than an atomic
nucleus) −1.6 × 10 −33
centimeter.
For time: Planck time −5 × 10 −44
seconds.
On the other hand, there is no evidence against what the quantum model inform us about the
true nature of reality. But in order to unify Albert Einstein's general relativity (a theoretical
framework for understanding the universe on the largest of scales: the immense expanse of the
universe itself and it breaks down at times less than the Planck time and at distances smaller
than the Planck length, predicts the existence of wormhole − a passageway between two
universes – gives us a better way of grasping reality than Newtonian mechanics, because it
tells us that there can be black holes, because it tells us there's a Big Bang) with the quantum
physics that describe fundamental particles and forces, it is necessary to quantize space and
perhaps time as well. And for a universe to be created out of nothing, the positive energy of
motion should exactly cancel out the negative energy of gravitational attraction i.e., the net
energy of the universe should be = zero. And if that's the case, the spatial curvature of the
universe, Ωk, should be = 0.0000 (i.e., perfect flatness). But the Wilkinson Microwave
Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) satellite has established the spatial curvature of the universe, Ωk,
to be between − 0.0174 and + 0.0051. Then, how can it cost nothing to create a universe, how
can a whole universe be created from nothing? On the other hand, there is a claim that the sum
of the energy of matter and of the gravitational energy is equal to zero and hence there is a
possibility of a universe appearing from nothing and thus the universe can double the amount
of positive matter energy and also double the negative gravitational energy without violation
of the conservation of energy. However, energy of matter + gravitational energy is = zero is
only a claim based on Big Bang implications. No human being can possibly know the precise
energy content of the entire universe. In order to verify the claim that the total energy content
of the universe is exactly zero, one would have to account for all the forms of energy of matter
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in the universe, add them together with gravitational energy, and then verify that the sum
really is exactly zero. But the attempt to verify that the sum really is exactly zero is not an
easy task. We need precision experiments to know for sure.
Gazing at the at the blazing celestial beauty of the night sky and asking a multitude of questions
that have puzzled and intrigued humanity since our beginning − WE'VE DISCOVERED a lot
about our celestial home; however, we still stand at a critical cross road of knowledge where the
choice is between spirituality and science to accomplish the hidden truth behind the early
evolution of the universe. In order to throw light on a multitude of questions that has so long
occupied the mind of scientists and the people who have argued over the years about the nature
of reality and whose business it is to ask why, the philosophers: Where did we and the universe
come from? Where are we and the universe going? What makes us and the universe exists?
Why we born? Why we die? Whether or not the universe had a beginning? If the universe had a
beginning, why did it wait an infinite time before it began? What was before the beginning? Is
our universe tunneled through the chaos at the Planck time from a prior universe that existed for
all previous time? We must either build a sound, balanced, effective and extreme imaginative
knowledge beyond our limit. Many theories were put forth by the scientists to look into the
early evolution of the universe but none of them turned up so far. And if, like me, you have
wondered looking at the star, and tried to make sense of what makes it shine the way it is. Did it
shine forever or was there a limit beyond which it cannot or may not shine? And, where did the
matter that created it all come from? Did the matter have a beginning in time? Or had the matter
existed forever and didn’t have a beginning? In other words, what cause made the matter exist?
And, what made that cause exist? Some would claim the answer to this question is that matter
could have popped into existence 13.9 billion years ago as a result of just the eminent physical
laws and constants being there. Any "meta" or "hyper" laws of physics that would allow
(even in postulate) a matter to pop into existence are completely outside our experience. The
eminent laws of physics, as we know them, simply are not applicable here. Invoking the laws of
physics doesn’t quite do the trick. And the laws of physics are simply the human-invented
ingredients of models that we introduce to describe observations. They are all fictitious, as far
as we find a reference frame in which they are observed. The question of matter genesis is
clear, and deceptively simple. It is as old as the question of what was going on before the
77

The History of the Universe in 1000 Words or Less: The origin and fate of the universe

The History of the Universe in 1000 Words or Less: The origin and fate of the universe

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