How was the Universe Created?

James Fullsome

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Member # 2956

Rate Member posted 01-28-2006 09:07 PM
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The Grand Unification Epoch: 10-35 seconds
The Grand Unification Epoch covers the time from 10-35 to 10-12 seconds after the Big Bang. The temperature during this epoch is estimated to decrease from 1027 K to 1015 K.

10-35 seconds

For the period of time between 10-35 seconds and 10-33 seconds, it is believed that the size of the universe expands many orders of magnitude. Postulating the existence of inflation solves a number of problems which are described in cosmic inflation.
This period is also very important for the existence of matter in the universe. Individually, the strong and the electroweak forces behave exactly the same way toward matter and antimatter, which means that there is no opportunity after this time for more matter to be created than antimatter. The electromagnetic and the electroweak forces are mixed and act as a single force. Grand unification theories suggest that when this is the case, it may be possible to have particle reactions which create more matter than antimatter.
10-33 seconds

The temperature of the Universe is approximately 1025 kelvins. The Quark-Antiquark Freezeout begins and lasts until 10-5 seconds. At these temperatures, quarks are able to condense out but the temperatures are still too hot for protons and neutrons to exist.
Birth of quarks, which appear in particle-antiparticle pairs. Quarks and anti-quarks annihilate each other to create photons, but quarks are created at a ratio of approximately 109 (1 billion) anti-quarks to 109+1 (1,000,000,001) quarks, resulting in one quark per billion matter-antimatter interactions. The mechanism causing this asymmetry, called baryogenesis is under active research and different theories are offered.
Free quarks multiply rapidly.

The four forces of the Universe differentiate themselves; gravity, the strong force, the weak force, and the electromagnetic force. The Universe starts off with the Grand Unified Force, which then differentiates into gravity and the electronuclear force. The electronuclear force, in turn, differentiates into the strong force and electroweak force.

The Electroweak Epoch: 10-12 seconds
Finally, the electroweak force differentiates into the weak force and the electromagnetic force.

The Electroweak Epoch covers the time from 10-12 to 10-6 seconds after the Big Bang. The temperature during this epoch is estimated to decrease from 1015 K to 1013 K.

10-12 seconds

The diameter of the observable universe increases to approximately 10-13 meters. The weak force, which involves massive particles, condenses and separates from the electromagnetic force, which involves a massless particle, leaving us with the four separate forces we know today.
Note:Currently, particle accelerators can reproduce the conditions that cause these two forces to act the same thereby reproducing the general conditions of the Universe during this epoch, but no farther. No one has experimentally recreated the high-energy states necessary for the electroweak and the strong forces to merge into the electronuclear force.
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Posts: 12 | Registered: Jan 2006