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Black Crunch jams Universal cycle [Cosmology]
Nature Magazine ^ | 23 Decemeber 2002 | PHILIP BALL

Posted on 12/22/2002 6:07:08 PM PST by PatrickHenry

Space might end up dark, thick and boring.

The Universe is not as bouncy as some think, say two physicists. If a Big Crunch follows the Big Bang, it may get stuck that way for ever1.

A fluid of black holes would bung up space. There would be nothing to drive another Big Bang, and nowhere else to go. The Universe would be, you might say, stuffed.

In a bouncing universe, all the matter currently flying apart slows until it reverses and falls towards a Big Crunch. Some physicists think this could ignite another Big Bang, in an unending sequence of expansion and contraction.

An idea called M-theory suggests how the switch from crunch to bang could happen2. The details depend on the shape of space: whether it is infinite and flat, or finite and curved like the surface of a balloon or a doughnut.

Thomas Banks of Rutgers University, New Jersey, and Willy Fischler of the University of Texas at Austin have considered a flat, infinite space in which particles get ever closer and ever denser.

In a space with such features, the smallest kinks in density are amplified into black holes, the densest objects in the Universe. So the whole of space-time would congeal into a very lumpy soup - a black crunch.

"We don't really know what this fluid is made out of," Fischler admits. But he and Banks argue that it may reach a pressure at which it cannot become any denser. At this point, the speed of sound equals the speed of light. Deadlock results.

No theory can cope with a Big Crunch. Because of this, says Fischler, the analysis that he and Banks have performed remains speculative. And a doughnut-shaped Universe could meet a quite different fate, he adds.

References:

1. Banks, T. & Fishler, W. Black Crunch. Preprint http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/hep-th/0212113, (2002). |Article|
2. Khoury, J., Ovrut, B. A., Seiberg, N., Steinhardt, P. J. & Turok, N. From Big Crunch to Big Bang. Preprint http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/hep-th/0108187, (2002). |Article|
[See the original article for links in the footnotes]


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: bigbang; bigcrunch; blackhole; cosmology; crevolist
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To: longshadow; RadioAstronomer; PatrickHenry
Isn't that were all the Dominatrixes hang out until their next sex slave arrives?

Only one is necessary...if she's very, very good. ;-)

241 posted on 12/24/2002 10:27:29 PM PST by Aracelis
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To: RadioAstronomer
There were a few I missed

Yes indeed. The one I particularly enjoyed was when he told you to shove it. LMAO! You of all people...Dr. Nice-Guy...what an maroon (him, not you)! :-D

242 posted on 12/24/2002 10:32:15 PM PST by Aracelis
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To: Sentis
To think I felt sorry for this kid. I guess I'll never learn.

Feel sorry for his instructors...just imagine what this kid is like in lecture!

243 posted on 12/24/2002 10:43:11 PM PST by Aracelis
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To: longshadow
No, but when I do; LOOK OUT!

I'm right with you...we'll dance the night away :-)

244 posted on 12/24/2002 10:45:32 PM PST by Aracelis
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To: Piltdown_Woman
Isn't one scientist enough for you? BTW, Merry Christmas to you too, fossil face.
245 posted on 12/24/2002 10:56:50 PM PST by Scully
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To: Scully
Still hanging-about? Hmmm...must be taking notes. Better hurry, Scully...you're not getting any younger.
246 posted on 12/24/2002 11:02:02 PM PST by Aracelis
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To: longshadow
Sounds like RA is studying the physics of cantilevered hemispheres. Orbital mechanics?... Two body problem?
247 posted on 12/24/2002 11:07:38 PM PST by MHGinTN
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To: MacDorcha
i havent seen you contribute a thing except personal remarks

Why should I bother to refute you on any other level...? You don't listen to anything but your own self-absorbed, hormonally-induced, aggrandized prattle. Up until now you've been quite entertaining, so let the show continue!

248 posted on 12/24/2002 11:16:04 PM PST by Aracelis
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To: MHGinTN; RadioAstronomer; longshadow; PatrickHenry; All
Two body problem?

Sigh! Although I'd love to counter this with an appropriate vaudevillian response, I should instead make a blanket disclaimer to spare my dear friend's reputation on FR. RA and I are engaged in legitimately under-funded research and that's all. I do enjoy the heck out of teasing him, though.

249 posted on 12/24/2002 11:36:28 PM PST by Aracelis
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To: MacDorcha
Those "rules," as you put it, are there to make communication more easily understood. The English language (and any language, for that matter) has rules for the same reason mathematics has rules -- to ensure information is communicated accurately from the sender to receiver.

The fact you do not "give a damn" about such rules bespeaks a lack of discipline in your writing, and hence your thinking. This is, sadly, the state of the publicly-educated mind nowadays. My 17-year-old daughter is also a student of the e.e. cummings school of writing, making email communications with her problematic.

250 posted on 12/25/2002 4:56:11 AM PST by Junior
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To: MacDorcha
so we know how to make perpetual motion machines? hot diggity, wish that was in the news!

An object rotating in space (the outer kind) is technically a perpetual-motion machine (an object in motion will remain in motion; an object at rest will remain at rest; until acted upon by an outside force). However, extracting energy from such an arrangement introduces one or more outside forces.

251 posted on 12/25/2002 5:04:12 AM PST by Junior
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To: Piltdown_Woman
Wow, you've just taken all the fun out things {;^)>
252 posted on 12/25/2002 5:10:41 AM PST by Junior
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To: Piltdown_Woman
RA and I are engaged ...

Can I quote you on that? </creation_mode>

253 posted on 12/25/2002 6:51:13 AM PST by VadeRetro
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To: Piltdown_Woman
Only one is necessary...if she's very, very good. ;-)

Which; one Dominatrix, or one slave?

;-)

254 posted on 12/25/2002 8:47:50 AM PST by longshadow
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To: Piltdown_Woman; VadeRetro
RA and I are engaged.......

Well, you better disengage before you get caught in that configuration!

255 posted on 12/25/2002 9:08:19 AM PST by longshadow
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To: VadeRetro
i happen to be in college, and could not have gotten there without passing algebra, geometry, and trigonomitry. You passed Trigonometry?

Hell, I'm just waiting for him to finally spell existence correctly.

Now, back to the universe thingy: Everything except us is standing still, we are just moving backwards really, really fast.

256 posted on 12/25/2002 10:15:38 AM PST by Old Professer
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To: Physicist
The moon is slowing down, but it's getting higher. Explain that.

It is condensing?

257 posted on 12/25/2002 10:20:58 AM PST by Old Professer
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To: Old Professer
Now, back to the universe thingy: Everything except us is standing still, we are just moving backwards really, really fast.

Creative guess, wrong nevertheless. Everything is receding from our viewpoint because we are the malodorous, wormy rectum of the universe.

Yes, I have trouble with "existence." Sometimes I even use the wrong "your." Finding the latter too late makes me suicidal for a few minutes.

But there's something about misspelling a subject you're thumping your chest about having passed in High School. Did you look at the book? Did the teacher write it on the board the first day of class? What does it mean, anyway, to have passed a course in High School where notoriously you pass if you don't get arrested?

258 posted on 12/25/2002 10:52:15 AM PST by VadeRetro
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To: longshadow
Both...hehe!
259 posted on 12/25/2002 11:25:15 AM PST by Aracelis
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To: VadeRetro
You know, I never even took trigonometry in high school (I was notoriously arithmephobic at the time). In college I only took the math courses required for a liberal arts degress (and none of those courses included trigonometry). I really didn't get into such things until I started playing "hard" science fiction wargames with their vector-based movement mechanics.

In other words, I don't believe trigonometry is a prerequisite for college.

260 posted on 12/25/2002 11:49:45 AM PST by Junior
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