Unified Field Theory

From a friend:

Ground zero: The universe is created in a big bang. Don't ask what went bang. Before the Planck time, 10-43 seconds after the big bang, nothing is really known, although it is presumed that at this stage there was total chaos, and all the forces, matter, and space time were unified.

At about the Planck time the universe underwent a phase change corresponding to the supergravity symmetry breaking, which created a space-time "foam", and the three remaining forces were unified into one single interaction SU(3) x SU(2) x U(1).

About 10-35 seconds after the big bang, expansion had dropped the temperature of the universe to about 10^27 K. At this temperature the energies were too low to support the unified interaction, which separated into SU(3), the strong interaction, and SU(2) x U(1), the electroweak force. With this symmetry break spacetime and matter separated creating the elementary particles known as quarks and leptons, and a vast amount of energy was released. This energy triggered the rapid expansion of the universe known as inflation, increasing the size of the universe at an exponential rate.

Between 10-35 and 10-32 seconds, the universe grew far beyond the horizon, the edge of the region of the universe falling within the light cone originating at inflation. The expansion in this case happened to the geometry of space-time, rather than the matter in it, so relativity was not violated.

(The inflation also triggered "sound waves", or density fluctuations, that propagated through time to the point of recombination, compressing and rarefying the primordial plasma and giving rise to the fluctuations in the CMB seen today.)

So maybe this answers your questions:

1) only after the big bang was space-time and matter created, so the big bang itself could not have collapsed since there was nothing to collapse (i think)

2) it was the energy of the following symmetry breakings that continued pushing the universe outward. As it moved outward, it cooled, causing another symmetry break, causing more expansion... etc.

3) the geometry of the universe expanded faster than the speed of light. That's inflation. So there are places in the universe that cannot be causally connected to us - they lie outside our "horizon".

There is a pretty good grasp on whats going on with the four forces... Obviously most of it's theory, and only when we can build higher and higher energy accelerators can we see if our predictions are correct.

http://www.advancedphysics.org/viewthread.php?tid=698&page=1



Within the following field network



So a theory of everything must unite Quantum Mechanics - at low temperatures happening at a spacetime foam 10^ -43 cm^3 or seconds level - and at extreme energy densities - combining SuSy (Super Symmetry) of the four relativistic forces inof one unified quamtum gravity framework.

Challenging, very challenging!

Fabulous, g_day. Thank you!

...
This is more of a philosophy/metaphysics question, but here goes.

Can it be said that plurality doesn't exist at the highest energy level, when that which becomes phenomena is merely potential.

Do things tend to simplify at the very high energy levels? Do they become more complex as they cool?

things don't change in complexity with heating/cooling. What happens, is that they appear to simplify as one force becomes dominant over the rest because that dominating force drowns the rest out. Kinda like listening to music through a stereo on its softest setting, and then having a large Band start playing Flight of the Valkyries in the background. The stereo's sound never goes away, but it gets drowned out.

That contradicts SuSy!