Q: Where is everything?
A: It’s behind you!
The inflationary model of the universe is widely accepted but only narrowly liked. It provides an answer to a problem but only if you’re willing to accept that it’s OK to break the laws of physics at the beginning of creation because the laws haven’t been made yet. And it doesn’t do much to help explain where everything is, by which I mean the 95% of all matter that has to be somewhere if our understanding of the shape of the universe is correct, or why the universe is growing at an accelerating rate.
Since I have no qualifications of any sort to weigh in on this topic, I feel entirely liberated to do just that. And I would like to propose a new reading of the inflationary model that is much simpler, breaks no laws, and might even be useful in other ways.
My proposal is that the universe is made up of two parts. The first part is the one we inhabit, the part that includes all “normal”, matter and whose arrow of time points forward (from our perspective at least). I’ll call this the Proverse. The second part occupies the same space as the first but its arrow of time is opposite to ours. I’ll call this the Reverse for obvious reasons.
In the first moments of the big bang, the Reverse was created, expanding faster than light and, as a result (according to physical law) travelling “backwards” in time. After some period, some small part of the Reverse, accounting for only 5% of its matter but represented by the heavier bits, cooled and slowed down. When it slowed down to the speed of light, the arrow of time for that small part flipped, creating the Proverse. The rest of the Reverse didn’t stop but rather continued its expansion at a faster speed than the Proverse, taking with it the other 95%, what we in our ignorance call dark matter and dark energy.
The diagram below depicts this model of the Big Bang from time and space perspectives. The time perspective (on the left) shows the Reverse coming into existence first (BBR = Big Bang Reverse), with the Proverse slightly paradoxically emerging second and yet “earlier” (BBP = Big Bang Proverse).
The space perspective (on the right) shows the Proverse appearing to come first (thanks to the Reverse actually coming first but travelling backwards in time), followed by the Reverse. Where the two cones of space intersect marks the point where the standard inflationary model defines the Big Bang (BBP inflationary).
This new model provides a simpler model of the Big Bang. It also does another couple of useful things.
First, it provides an explanation for the apparent weakness of gravity compared to the other forces, which is that gravity in the Proverse is being partially counteracted by the equivalent force in the Reverse.
Second, and related to the first, it suggests a reason for the acceleration of the universe. There is an ongoing struggle between Proverse gravity and Reverse gravity. In the early days of the Proverse its gravitational forces were more dominant, leading towards the creation of stars and galaxies. As time proceeds and massive objects in the Proverse move further away from each other (on average), so their gravitational attraction weakens in comparison to the equivalent force in the Reverse. The Reverse is pulling the Proverse “out” and will continue to do so.
One final thought: if our universe really is composed of two parts defined by their relative position with regard to the speed of light, it may be possible that the particles which move at that speed somehow exist at the intersection of time, sometimes moving forward with the Proverse, sometimes moving back with the Reverse, and probably switching from one to the other regularly in relation to their wavelength. Could this explain puzzles like the famous double-slit experience and spooky interaction at a distance?
Thanks for reading.
Recent Comments