Scientists who believe that the universe has no beginning (and challenge the idea of ​​space-time) | Doctor Techno | magazine

If they ask you about the beginning of the universe, the Big Bang is the first answer that definitely comes to mind.

There are scholars, however, who they wonder That was the beginning

Now a young researcher goes further and confirms it perhaps There was not even a start.

This is Bruno Pinto, a researcher in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Liverpool in the United Kingdom.

Pinto is co-author of an academic article titled If time had no beginning, which is still under review by other experts.

His theory differs from the traditional notion we have about the passage of time, that it evokes a infinite past He sees the Big Bang as another event in the universe that has always existed.

What is Pinto’s proposal and how does it challenge what we know about the evolution of the universe?

beyond singularity

Its modern physics two theories that help us explain the universe.

On one side is Quantum mechanics, which describes subatomic particles and their interactions.

On the other hand, there is a file general relativity, which works well to explain the gravity that governs what happens in the macroscopic world.

The general theory of relativity leads us to this 13.8 billion years We go back to the moments immediately after the Big Bang, when everything existed on small scales.

However, that Einstein theory short When explaining what happened at the moment of the Big Bang, or what happened before.

This is what experts call “exclusivity”, i.e. the point at which the theory of relativity no longer explains what is happening.

In this singularity, matter is so compressed that gravity becomes very strong in subatomic scales.

So what we need to explain what happened during and before that singularity is a theory Autism Quantum mechanics and general relativity.

This is what experts call a Quantum theory of gravity, where gravity can be explained at a quantitative level and help describe what happens at those scales.

This is where Pinto’s suggestion comes in.

spacetime atoms

In his article, Pinto builds on causal set theory, an approach to quantum gravity that states that spacetime is made up of some building blocks, the “spacetime atoms” that make up the elements.

In this way, causal group theory solves the singularity problem, because according to its point of view there can be no nothing smaller From an iota of space-time.

“According to causal set theory, what we feel as the passage of time corresponds to The birth of new elements of the causal group,” Pinto told BBC Mundo.

“What do we call ‘currently’ It is the birth of a new element.”

We don’t have a start

Pinto’s work starts from this idea to propose the formation of causal groups no limitsTherefore, the Big Bang would not be the beginning of the universe.

For Pinto, there is always something before, i.e. causal sets will be infinite in the past and the Big Bang will be just a certain moment in the universe evolution.

“Our work says that if causal groups are the answer, then we We don’t necessarily have a start.”Pinto says.

The challenge that Pinto proposes is to get rid of the idea of “sequence” Where one element causes another element to appear.

Instead, he suggests considering a file “Be asynchronous” Where items are partially generated, not completely.

In his article, the researcher acknowledges that the idea of ​​”asynchronous transformation” appears to be a “fantasy puzzle” and that “it is necessary to A new kind of math To understand “asynchronous transformation” and its consequences in the nature of time”.

Pinto’s work presents ‘first steps to creating a file Mathematical Understanding of the Big Bang Astrophysicist Niayesh Afshordi, a researcher at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Canada, who was not involved in the work, told BBC Mundo.

Pinto hopes that future experiments can do this Attempt Consequences of models like the ones he proposes.