The Inverted Big-Bang

Abstract

Our universe appears to have been created not out of nothing but from a strange space-time dust. Quantum geometry (loop quantum gravity) makes it possible to avoid the ominous beginning of our universe with its physically unrealistic (i.e. infinite) curvature, extreme temperature, and energy density. This could be the long sought after explanation of the big-bang and perhaps even opens a window into a time before the big-bang: Space itself may have come from an earlier collapsing universe that turned inside out or inverted and began to expand again. - Key words: Loop quantum cosmology, Wheeler-DeWitt equation, singularity, Abhay Ashtekar, Martin Bojowald.

Translated by Amitabha Sen from: Ruediger Vaas: Der umgestuelpte Urknall. bild der wissenschaft, no. 4 (2004), pp. 50-55. - 8 pages including an appendix and references