How exactly did the universe start and how did these processes determine its formation and evolution? This is what a recent study published in Physical Review Research hopes to address as a team of researchers from Spain and Italy proposed a new model for the events that transpired immediately after the birth of the universe. This study has the potential to challenge longstanding theories regarding the exact processes that occurred at the beginning of the universe, along with how these processes have governed the formation and evolution of the universe.

For the study, the researchers used a series of computer models to simulate the beginning of the universe that challenge the longstanding theory that the universe began with a period of rapid expansion known as “inflation”, with scientists estimating this occurred within the first fraction of a second of the universe’s existence. However, this inflation theory postulates that several variables were all involved in making this theory possible.

In contrast, this new model suggests that a longstanding phenomenon of general relativity called gravitational waves are responsible for the universe and all its components, including galaxies, stars, planets, and life on Earth. The team proposes these gravitational waves are part of a longstanding mathematical model called De Sitter space, which is named after the Dutch mathematician Willem De Sitter, who worked with Albert Einstein regarding the universe’s structure throughout the 1920s.

We may never know exactly how the universe began and the processes responsible for you reading this article right now. But like the simplicity this study presents, perhaps this study is simply a way for us to know the universe itself a little bit better.

What new discoveries about the origins of the universe will researchers make in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!

Source:

Inflation without an inflaton

https://journals.aps.org/prresearch/abstract/10.1103/vfny-pgc2

  • ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    5 months ago

    Isn’t that image (the thumbnail) a depiction of the inflation theory formation of the universe? And this new theory says that isn’t a factor and that the creation and expansion of the universe can be explained purely via gravitational waves?

    It’s possibly I’m missing something since it’s still early for me, and I’m getting distracted by other things.