Ecpyrotic Universe

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The Ekpyrotic Universe (from ancient Greek ekpyrosis "world fire") is a cosmological model published in 2002 by Paul Steinhardt and Neil Turok , which describes a theoretical possibility for the origin of our universe and is formulated as an alternative to the inflation theory, to which Steinhardt himself used to be essential Contributions made.

The model makes similar statements as the inflation theory (especially the lambda CDM model ), but uses the language of string theory and its generalization to branes . Accordingly, in the process of creation, our universe in the form of a three-dimensional brane collides with a brane from a parallel universe within a five-dimensional space (“bulk”) which they border, with enough energy being released in the two branes to explain the creation of matter and radiation ( Big Bang ). From the brane in the universe to that in the parallel universe there is no direct contact except through gravity . The ekpyrotic model corresponds to a cyclical universe that expands whenever brane collisions occur, contracts again and expands again after another collision.

A possible experimental decision on which cosmological model applies could be the observation of the high frequency gravitational waves predicted by the eccyrotic model and the pattern of polarization in the background radiation .

literature

  • Justin Khoury, Burt A. Ovrut, Paul J. Steinhardt and Neil Turok: The Ekpyrotic Universe: Colliding Branes and the Origin of the Hot Big Bang , Physical Review D, Volume 64, 2001. ( Abstract )
  • Justin Khoury, Paul J. Steinhardt: Adiabatic Ekpyrosis: Scale-Invariant Curvature Perturbations from a Single Scalar Field in a Contracting Universe , Phys. Rev. Lett., Volume 104, 2010, p. 91301
  • Steinhardt, Turok: Cosmic evolution in a cyclic universe , Physical Review D, Volume 65, 2002, p. 126003

Web links

References and comments

  1. ↑ A term of the Stoic philosophy according to which the world is set on fire cyclically and is reborn (see world fire )
  2. ↑ In the inflation model, the cause of the big bang, which is viewed as a singularity , remains open