Tips: 0.00 INK
by Sepokku on Tue May 31, 2022 4:07 pm
As we understand the Universe, matter did not exist before the big bang. Physicists ordinarily work separately with quantum mechanics, which rules the microworld of particles, and with general relativity, which applies on large, cosmic scales. But to truly understand the Planck epoch, we need a complete theory of quantum gravity, merging the two.
We still don't have a perfect theory of quantum gravity, but there are attempts – like string theory and loop quantum gravity. In these attempts, ordinary space and time are typically seen as emergent, like the waves on the surface of a deep ocean. What we experience as space and time are the product of quantum processes operating at a deeper, microscopic level – processes that don't make much sense to us as creatures rooted in the macroscopic world.
According to string theory formulations for the beginning of the Universe two branes, enormous membranes much larger than the Universe, collided, creating mass and energy. The first long-lived matter particles of any kind were protons and neutrons, which together make up the atomic nucleus. These came into existence around one ten-thousandth of a second after the Big Bang.
In the Standard Model of particle physics, matter is not a fundamental concept because the elementary constituents of atoms are quantum entities that do not have an inherent "size" or "volume" in any everyday sense of the word. So yes, our Universe existed as a singularity (The thing that would Big Bang) before matter existed within it.
And maybe according to String theory, the fundamental make-up of the universe that you speak of may be hidden in the "bulk" or the hyperspace we can't see as we are only 3-dimensional.
Tip jar: the author of this post has received
0.00 INK
in return for their work.