DevilsAdvocate: It has taken me a long time to respond to your questions and I appologize. The response is a bit long and involved and I hope it clarifies the concepts. I am also posting it as a general input. There are a lot of other queries out there as well.
JCHARDY
1A. “Before there was anything there was nothing. Neither time nor space. There was only absolute vacuum.”
1. You asked: “What is an absolute vacuum? A vacuum implies space, so this would actually be incorrect. There would be nothing, no space, not time, and therefore no natural cause. However as an agnostic I am not necessarily opposed to a supernatural cause.”
A: THIS USE OF THE WORDS “ABSOLUTE VACUUM” INDICATES ONLY THAT THERE WAS NEITHER PHYSICAL NOR THERMAL “PRESENCE” AT THAT POINT JUST AS THERE WAS NO SPACE-TIME. IT IS THE BEST CONCEPTUALIZATION I COULD COME UP WITH GIVEN OUR LACK OF RELEVANT VOCABULARY.
B. “Somewhere within that “nothing” a quanta of energy appeared, (FROM WHERE. From what is unknown”).
2. Point 1 explains pt 2. If there was no time prior to the beginning of the universe i.e. the Big Bang then there was no need for a cause for the emergence of the "quanta of energy".
A: COMPLETELY AGREE. WHAT WE ARE TRYING TO CONCEPTUALIZE IS THE PROCESS THAT TOOK PLACE WHICH RESULTED IN “ALL OF THIS STUFF”.
C. “The quanta was infinitesimally small but in a void that was itself an absolute vacuum. Thus presenting “something” within “nothing” which is technically an enormous gradient difference and thus the potential energy to give rise to the matter stream necessary for formation of the mass of the universe. See the: Onsager reciprocal relations (sometimes called the Fourth Law of Thermodynamics).”
3. You then said: “According to current understanding of the universe and the Big Bang theory the volume of this "quanta of energy" is actually synonymous to the boundary of space-time. Their is no outside void since there is no "outside". An outside would indicate a space outside of space which doesn't make any since. This is counter-intuitive and hard for our brains to imagine since we can only think in three dimensions vice the 10 or more dimensions proposed in more abstract theories such as the superstring/M theory (or whatever they are calling it now).”
A: AS YOU POINT OUT, WE HAVE NO CONCEPT (AND THEREFORE NO WORDS) FOR THE NOTHING THAT “EXISTED” AT THIS POINT IN TIME. WE CAN BE QUITE CERTAIN THOUGH THAT THE THERMAL “CONTENT” OF THIS NOTHING WAS AT LEAST ABSOLUTE ZERO. THAT DOES NOT SEEM TO ME TO BE TOO GREAT OF A SUPPOSITION. THE MYSTERY IS: WHAT WAS IT DIMENSIONALLY? I.E., HOW “LARGE” OR “CONFINING” WAS “IT”. THAT IS PROBABLY IRRELEVANT THOUGH SINCE THE “ACTION” WAS TO TAKE PLACE AT THE INTERFACE OF THE “SOMETHING” QUANTA AND THE “NOTHING”.
4. You then asked: “Can you explain how Onsager's reciprocal relations fit into this?”
A1: IN THERMODYNAMICS, THE ONSAGER RECIPROCAL RELATIONS EXPRESS THE EQUALITY OF CERTAIN RELATIONS BETWEEN FLOWS AND FORCES IN THERMODYNAMIC SYSTEMS OUT OF EQUILIBRIUM, BUT WHERE A NOTION OF LOCAL EQUILIBRIUM EXISTS. AS AN EXAMPLE, IT IS OBSERVED THAT TEMPERATURE DIFFERENCES IN A SYSTEM LEAD TO HEAT FLOWS FROM THE WARMER TO THE COLDER PARTS OF THE SYSTEM. SIMILARLY, PRESSURE DIFFERENCES WILL LEAD TO MATTER FLOW FROM HIGH-PRESSURE TO LOW-PRESSURE REGIONS.
A2: CLEARLY SUCH “REGIONS” EXISTED IN THE EARLY UNIVERSE AND ESPECIALLY AT THE MEGA-THERMAL INTERFACE BETWEEN VERY HIGH KELVIN TEMPERATURES OF 1015 GEV AND ABSOLUTE ZERO. I THINK MOST WOULD CONCEDE THAT THIS KIND OF GRADIENT WOULD RESULT IN AMPLIFICATION EVEN WITH THE TINIEST VOLUMETRIC INJECTION OF HEAT ENERGY ”AT THE BEGINNING”.
A3: IT HAS BEEN OBSERVED EXPERIMENTALLY THAT WHEN BOTH PRESSURE AND TEMPERATURE VARY, PRESSURE DIFFERENCES CAN CAUSE HEAT FLOW AND TEMPERATURE DIFFERENCES CAN CAUSE MATTER FLOW. EVEN MORE SURPRISINGLY, THE HEAT FLOW PER UNIT OF PRESSURE DIFFERENCE AND THE DENSITY (MATTER) FLOW PER UNIT OF TEMPERATURE DIFFERENCE ARE EQUAL.
A4: THUS IF (AS WE SPECULATE) RELATIVISTIC MATTER WAS EVOLVED EARLY IN THE PRIMORDIAL UNIVERSE. IT EVOLVED FROM CHAOS, AREAS OF EQUILIBRIUM AND INTERACTION OF HARMONICS WITHIN THE AMPLIFIED ENERGY SYSTEM (ANOTHER WAY OF EXPRESSING EQUILIBRIUM). THIS WAS ACCOMPANIED BY FLOW OF THAT NEW MATTER AND THERMAL RELOCATIONS WHICH WOULD SIGNIFICANTLY AGITATE THE EMBRYONIC SYSTEM EVEN FURTHER, RESULTING IN NEW TEMPERATURE TRANSLOCATION OR TENSORS AS THE SYSTEM VERY RAPIDLY, EVOLVES AND INFLATES.
D. “Thus something even as minute as infinitely small (might thus give rise to) everything that would come to exist.”
5. But infinitely (or nearly so) dense. Smallness means nothing if this "quanta" is dense enough to contain the energy and mass of the universe.
A: AGREE!
E. “Thus this relatively tiny amount of energy -- was subjected to the greatest force in the universe, i.e., that of an infinitely huge and infinitely vacant vacuum, a vacuum unknown to us now within the cosmos.”
6. You then said: “I am not sure if this is correct, wouldn't this be a nearly infinite amount of energy packed into a nearly infinite small amount of space. What is this vacuum you are talking about?”
A. THIS IS A SPECULATION ABOUT THE SIZE OF THE ENERGY INJECTION REQUIRED TO ACTIVATE THE PROCESS. REMEMBER: WE HAVE A SYSTEM SUDDENLY APPEARING AND THEN EXISTING WITHIN AN ENVIRONMENT INITIALLY CONSISTING OF NOTHING AT ABSOLUTE ZERO INTER-RELATING WITH A QUANTA (I PREFER TO CALL IT AN “ENERGY RUPTURE” OR “INJECTION” OF UNKNOWN INITIAL SIZE THOUGH SPECULATED ON THERMAL CONTENT in GEV) WHICH IS AMPLIFIED, PROBABLY EXPONENTIALLY BY THE CONTRAST GRADIENTS WITHIN THE “SYSTEM”.
F. “Since nature truly abhors a vacuum, this infinitesimal quanta was then “forced” (?by the laws of thermodynamics above?) to expand (?inflate?) in all directions creating more action/dynamics within the bounds of the same Onsager reciprocal relations. This may well have been the root of all energy and, subsequently, all matter in the universe.”
7. You then said: “The Big Bang would necessarily have to be the source of all energy and matter in the universe. Basically all the forces of energy (strong, weak, gravity and electromagnetism) were one force. These forces split apart from each other and basically a reverse form of gravity was generated by the energy .
A1: SOME SPECULATE THIS IS THE HIGG’S BOSON AND/OR DARK ENERGY. THE HIGG’S IS THOUGH TO HAVE EVOLVED AS PART AND OR FROM -- this small but ultra massive quanta of energy. SORT OF THE ORIGINAL BOSON.
You then said:
“This "ball of energy" expanded at a super rapid and accelerating rate. As this energy did so it started to cool and at the same time matter formed (remember matter and energy are two sides of the same coin so to speak) and this matter started to coalesce into subatomic particles and eventually individual atoms.
A2: RIGHT. SEE THE SPECULATION ABOUT THIS PROCESS BELOW. IT IS LIKELY THAT THIS PROCESS BEGAN VERY EARLY IN THE PROCESS BUT STABILIZATION WOULD REQUIRE COOLING.
G. “Thus, the void tore at the edges (?inflated) by this first quantum of energy which was driven (by pressure differentials) to expand (?by virtue of the absence of impeding forces which would come to exist in the universe thereafter).”
8. You stated: “I am trying to understand this pressure differential you are talking about? A pressure differential requires points in space with more and less energy. “
A: THE “POINTS IN SPACE” WOULD BE BOUNDARY POINTS OR TRANSITIONAL POINTS AT THE INTERFACE AT INCEPTION OF THE QUANTUM ENERGY INFUSION/RUPTURE (BIG BANG). THAT IS: THE INTERFACE BETWEEN THE ENERGETIC “SOMETHING” AND “ABSOLUTELY NOTHING”. AS STATED ABOVE, THIS “CONTRAST” WOULD CAUSE AN ENORMOUS GRADIENT. THAT IS PRESSURES. WE ARE TALKING ABOUT THE VERY HOT (ENERGETIC) THOUGH INFINITESIMAL INTERFACING (SUDDENLY “APPEARING WITHIN”) AN “ENVIRONMENT” CHARACTERIZED BY ABSOLUTE ZERO AND NOTHING BUT “VOID”. THUS BOTH A PHYSICAL AND THERMAL GRADIENT AND ASSOCIATED PRESSURES OF ENORMOUS CONTRAST INITIALLY WITH POINTS OF CHAOS ADMIXED WITH LOCALIZED (THOUGH TRANSIENT) ORDER (EQUILIBRIUM) WITH SIMILARLY ENORMOUS EFFECT. HARMONIC ALMOST CERTAINLY PLAYED A MAJOR ROLE AND IT WAS PROBABLY WITHIN THIS INITIAL ENVIRONMENT THAT INITIAL LEPTON, FERMION WITH THE INITIALLY UNIFIED AND FINALLY SEPARATING AND THEN INTERACTIVE BOSONIC FORCES EVOLVED. THE INITIAL CHARGED PARTICLES STIRRED UP MORE CHAOS AND ENERGETIC INTERPLAY WHICH IN TURN “CREATED” MORE OF THE ABOVE ALMOST AD INFINITUM WHAT WAS NEEDED WAS THAT THE INITIAL QUANTUM OF ENERGY BE OF SUFFICIENT MAGNITUDE AND SUSTAINED FOR A SUFFICIENT “PERIOD” TO ACTIVATE THE PROCESS. NO ONE (TO MY KNOWLEDGE) “KNOWS” WHAT THAT SUSTAINING PERIOD MIGHT BE, BUT IT MIGHT BE WORKED OUT MATHEMATICALLY WITH THE RIGHT PROBABILITY INFORMATION AND THE CORRECT TENSORS. AFTER THAT, -- ONCE MATTER BEGAN TO EVOLVE, --- ANTIMATTER ANNIHILATIONS AND POSSIBLE NEUTRINO EVOLUTION TOOK PLACE POSSIBLY TOWARD A SECOND “SET” OF PRIMARY” RELATIVISTIC PARTICLES . A VERY CHAOTIC AND CREATIVE POINT IN SPACETIME.
WE OBVIOUSLY HAVE NO NAME FOR WHAT “WAS” BEFORE SPACETIME “BECAME” WITH THE INITIATION OF INFLATION. OUR NOMENCLATURE AND VOCABULARY SIMPLY DOES NOT EXIST (AS IT DIDN’T.)
H. “As the energy quantum inflated, it produced more energy, which in turn expanded as it was subject to the initial infinite negative force (vacuum) of the primary void.”
9. You said: “This doesn't really jive with the current cosmological models of the Big Bang from my understanding. There are no voids outside of the universe.”
A. AT LEAST WE DON’T KNOW NOR CAN WE THEORIZE ABOUT SUCH NON-THIS-UNIVERSE “VOIDS” SINCE OUR CONCEPTUAL LIMITS ARE THOSE OF OUR OWN UNIVERSE. THAT IS INDEED A PROBLEM.
You then said: “That again would indicate space outside of space.”
A: IT WOULD INDICATE “SOMETHING” OUTSIDE OF KNOWN SPACE. ?SUBSPACE? ?HYPERSPACE? SOMETHING OTHER THAN THE SPACE-TIME WITH WHICH WE ARE FAMILIAR.
You then said: My understanding of physics is that "dimension" does not equal "space". A: AGREE WITH YOU!
You then said: Time-space is four dimensions out of many (possibly 10 or more). But many of these extra-dimensions are wrapped up very small (on the scale of strings if they exist). Again a lot of this is speculative but the math and physics support it.
A: AGREE.
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