I have recently completed a thread: "Science is Not Bad, But There Is Bad Science" Here is the link: http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/10/94089/1604875/post.ashx#160487
This new thread is a continuation from there, with the idea of focusing on one main topic.
Today most cosmologists and scientists working in related fields almost universlly accept the Big Bang Theory of the Universe as an almost "proven fact". Yest, there are some technical difficulties with the theory, but overall these scientists are of the view that all it takes is a little more effort and research, and these so-called problems will be solved.
In the meantime, anyone who tries to point out some opposing views to the Big Bang are inevitably dismissed as poor, misguided "Big Bang bashers".
The purpose of this thread is to try and present some of these opposing viewpoints and troubling observational data that appears to contradict the Big Bang, with the hope that we can discuss the possibility that the Big Bang Theory may actually be in a precarious position by claiming to be the only viable theory for explaining the observable Universe.
Following this discussion, I would invite a further discussion as to the possible implications for all this, as well as some suggestions for possible alternative theories or models. At the outset here, I wish to state that I do not have a "pet theory" or conclusion in my own mind. Rather, I am just nervous about blind acceptance about Big Bang theory of the Universe that is just that- a THEORY.
There is a vast literature on this topic, which I do not wish to analyze and summarize at this time. It would take too long. However, there are some rather interesting and succinct articles that I would like to include here that will pretty well summarize some of the objections to the Big Bang theory, along with a few other useful links.
First of all, I would direct your attention to the following article:
Big Bang Broken and Can't Be Fixed- by Amy Acheson Thunderbolts.info http://www.rense.com/general63/bbang.htm
The article leads to a number of interesting additional links:
1) Quasar in Front of a Galaxy: A single, undisputed quasar falsifies the first pillar of Big Bang ideology. http://www.thunderbolts.info/tpod/2004/arch/041001quasar-galaxy.htm
2) Big Bang a Big Loser in 2005: The Big Bang has lost its theoretical foundation, which was the Doppler interpretation of redshift (linking redshift to the stretching of light wavelengths as objects move away from us) http://www.thunderbolts.info/tpod/2004/arch/041227prediction-bigbang.htm
3) Having Faith in Edwin Hubble: Cosmologists would do well to heed the warnings of Edwin Hubble himself (the "father" of the prevailing redshift interpretation) http://www.thunderbolts.info/tpod/2004/arch/041109hubble-redshift.htm
4) Halton Arp, A Modern Day Galileo: For his discoveries, he was denied telescope time, and now must carry on his research in Germany. But Halton Arp's continuing research will forever change the direction of astronomy. http://www.thunderbolts.info/tpod/2004/arch/041101arp-galileo.htm
5) Fingers of God: By placing galaxies according to redshift, today's cosmologists have produced a map of the universe in which galaxies stretch out in radial lines across billions of light years, improbably pointing at the earth. http://www.thunderbolts.info/tpod/2004/arch/041018fingers-god.htm
6) Halton Arp's Website: Technical articles are available about quasars and galaxies and black holes, plus articles in which Halton Arp shares personal experiences about what it is like being a maverick in astronomy. http://www.haltonarp.com
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Now here are three articles from three famous dissident scientists on problems of the Big Bang Theory. They are collectively rather lengthy, but I post them here for convenience. They are well worth reading.
The source is: http://www.spaceandmotion.com/Cosmology-Big-Bang-Theory.htm
'The Big Bang Never Happened' by Eric J. Lerner
But I was soon to learn it was still difficult for people to change their views of the heavens.
In our century the cosmological pendulum has swung back. The universe of present-day cosmology is more like that of Ptolemy and Augustine than that of Galileo and Kepler. Like the medieval cosmos, the modern universe is finite in time- it began in the Big Bang, and will end either in a Big Crunch or in slow decay and dissipation of all matter.
A universe of unlimited progress from an infinite past to an infinite future makes sense when society is advancing. But when that advance halts, when the idea of progress is mocked by the century of Verdun, Auschwitz, and Hiroshima, when the prospect of human betterment is dim, we should not be surprised that the decaying cosmos again rises to dominance.
Science and Society
And since, as history abundantly shows, people's views of the universe are bound up with their views of themselves and of their society, this debate has implications far beyond the realm of science, for the core of the cosmological debate is a question of how truth is known.
How these questions are answered will shape not only the history of science, but the history of humanity.
The emerging revolution in science extends beyond cosmology. Today the study of the underlying structure of matter, particle physics, is intimately tied up with cosmology- the structure of the universe, theorists argue, is the result of events in the first instants of time. If the Big Bang hypothesis is wrong, then the foundation of modern particle physics collapses and entirely new approaches are required. Indeed, particle physics also suffers from an increasing contradiction between theory and experiment.
Equally important, if the Big Bang never occurred our concept of time must change as well. Instead of a universe finite in time, running down from a fiery start to a dusty, dark finish, the universe will be infinite in duration, continuously evolving. Just such a concept of time as evolution is now emerging from new studies in the field of thermodynamics.
My aim is to explain these new ideas to the general reader, one who is interested in the crucial issues of science but who has no special training in the subject. I believe that if the issues are presented clearly, readers will be able to judge the validity of the arguments involved in this debate.
This history, then, involves more than the history of cosmology, or even of science. One of the basic (although far from original) themes of this book is that science is intimately tied up with society, that ideas about society, about events here on earth, affect ideas about the universe- and vice versa. This interaction is not limited to the world of ideas. A society's social, political and economic structures have a vast effect on how people think; and scientific thought, through its impact on technology, can greatly change the course of economic and social evolution.
My conflict with conventional physics started when I was an undergraduate at Columbia in the mid-sixties. Physics itself interested me, learning why things happen as they do- mathematics was merely a tool to understand and test the underlying physical concepts. That was not the way physics was taught; instead, mathematical techniques were emphasized. This is almost exclusively what students are still tested on, and obviously study the most.
Observation and Conflict
The only test of scientific truth is how well a theory corresponds to the world we observe. Does it predict things that we can then see? Or do our observations of nature show things that a theory says are impossible? No matter how well liked a theory may be, if observation contradicts it, then it must be rejected. For science to be useful, it must provide an increasingly true and deep description of nature, not a prescription of what nature must be.
In the past four years crucial observations have flatly contradicted the assumptions and predictions of the Big Bang. Because the Big Bang supposedly occurred only about twenty billion years ago, nothing in the cosmos can be older than this. Yet in 1986 astronomers discovered that galaxies compose huge agglomerations a billion light-years across; such mammoth clustering of matter must have taken a hundred billion years to form. Just as early geological theory, which sought to compress the earth's history into a biblical few thousand years crumbled when confronted with the aeons needed to build up a mountain range, so the concept of a Big Bang is undetermined by the existence of these vast and ancient superclusters of galaxies.
These enormous ribbons of matter, whose reality was confirmed during 1990, also refute a basic premise of the Big Bang - that the universe was, at its origin, perfectly smooth and homogeneous. Theorists admit that they can see no way to get from the perfect universe of the Big Bang to the clumpy, imperfect universe of today. As one leading theorist, George Field of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, put it,
"There is a real crisis".
Other conflicts with observation have emerged as well. Dark matter, a hypothetical and unobserved form of matter, is an essential component of current Big Bang theory- an invisible glue that holds it all together. Yet Finnish and American astronomers, analyzing recent observations, have shown that the mysterious dark matter isn't invisible- it doesn't exist. Using sensitive new instruments, other astronomers around the world have discovered extremely old galaxies that apparently formed long before the Big Bang universe could have cooled sufficiently. In fact, by the end of the eighties, new contradictions were popping up every few months.
In all of this, cosmologists have remained entirely unshaken in their acceptance of the theory.
... cosmologists, with few exceptions, have either dismissed the observations as faulty, or have insisted that minor modifications of Big Bang theory will reconcile "apparent" contradictions. A few cosmic strings or dark particles are needed- nothing more.
This response is not surprising: most cosmologists have spent all of their careers, or at least the past twenty-five years, elaborating various aspects of the Big Bang. It would be very difficult for them, as for any scientist, to abandon their life's work. Yet the observers who bring forward these contradictions are also not at all ready to give up the Big Bang. Observing astronomers have generally left the interpretation of data to the far more numerous theoreticians. And until recently there seemed to be no viable alternative to the Big Bang - nowhere to go if you jumped ship.
Superclusters
While galaxies are a mere hundred thousand light-years across and clusters not more than ten million or so, a supercluster might snake through a few hundred million light-years of space.
It turns out that galaxies almost never move much faster than a thousand kilometers per second, about one-three-hundredths as fast as the speed of light.
Simply put, if Tully's objects exist, the universe cannot have begun twenty billion years ago.
In 1990 the existence of these huge objects was confirmed by several teams of astronomers. The most dramatic work was that of Margaret J. Geller and John P. Huchra of the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, who are mapping galaxies within about six hundred million light-years of earth. In November of 1989 they announced their latest results, revealing what they called the "Great Wall", a huge sheet a galaxies stretching in every direction off the region mapped. The sheet, more than two hundred million light-years across and seven hundred million light-years long, but only about twenty million light-years thick, coincides with a part of one of the supercluster complexes mapped by Tully. The difference is that the new results involve over five thousand individual galaxies, and thus are almost impossible to question as statistical flukes.
Science, Specialization and Academia
In 1889 Samuel Pierpont Langley, a famed astronomer, president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and soon to be the one of the pioneers of aviation, described the scientific community as
"a pack of hounds ... where the louder-voiced bring many to follow them nearly as often in a wrong path as in a right one, where the entire pack even has been known to move off bodily on a false scent."
The current system of specialized peer review originated in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as science became more closely tied to, and supported by, large-scale capitalist enterprise. While inventor-entrepreneurs like Thomas Edison chose for themselves what to research, the later financier-industrialists wanted the "quality of work" guaranteed in advance. So they, together with leading academics, encouraged the idea of peer review- the inspection of scientific work by the "best authorities" in a given field.
At the same time, the growing industrialization of scientific research led to an increasing level of specialization. The older generation of scientists had picked their research topics according to their own interests and often hopped across an entire field (as the best twentieth-century scientists continue to do). But as scientific research became organized in large-scale industrial labs, and as university work fell under the sway of industrial concerns, research came to focus on specific topics of commercial need, and scientists were encouraged to devote their entire career to single specialties.
The combination of growing specialization and the peer-review system have fractured science into isolated domains, each with a built-in tendency toward theoretical orthodoxy and a hostility to other disciplines.
Evidence that "interdisciplinarification" does, in fact, fight orthodoxy and encourage the development of new ideas is in the willingness of Nobel Prize committees to recognize mavericks like Alfven and Prigogine. The committees consist of representatives from the whole broad field, such as physics or chemistry, and so they do not respect the specific orthodoxies of a given specialty and are far better able to judge a scientist's work on its merit, no matter how controversial it may be.
When scientists are specialized," Alfven comments, "it's easy for orthodoxy to develop. The same individuals who formulate orthodox theory enforce it by reviewing papers submitted to journals, and grant proposals as well. From this standpoint, I think the Catholic Church was too much blamed in the case of Galileo- he was just a victim of peer review.
The ability of a scientific theory to be refuted is the key criterion that distinguishes science. If a theory cannot be refuted, if there is no observation that will disprove it, then nothing can prove it - it cannot predict anything, it is a worthless myth.
Nicholas of Cusa, 1401
In his major work, paradoxically entitled On Learned Ignorance, Nicholas, returned to the central idea of Anaxagoras- an infinite, unlimited universe. In contrast to Ptolemy's finite cosmos circumscribed by concentric spheres with earth at their center, Nicholas argued that the universe has no limits in space, no beginning or ending in time. God is not located outside the finite universe, he is everywhere and nowhere, transcending space and time.
Nicholas's infinite universe is populated by an unlimited number of stars and planets, and, of course, has no center, no single immobile place of rest. The earth, he reasoned, must therefore move, like everything else in the universe. It appears at rest only because we're on it, moving with it. He cast aside the geocentric cosmos entirely.
The Atomic Bomb And The Return Of The Big Bang
To one of the Manhattan Project scientists, George Gamow, the detonation of an A-bomb constituted an analogy for the origin of the universe: if an A-bomb can, in a hundred-millionth of a second, create elements still detected in the desert years later, why can't a universal explosion lasting a few seconds have produced the elements we see today, billions of years later? In a paper in the fall of 1946, Gamow put forward his idea, a second version of the Big Bang. Unlike Lemaitre, he took as observational proof of his hypothesis the abundance of the elements, not cosmic rays; but like him, Gamow assumed that this abundance could not have been produced by any process continuing in the present-day universe.
Unlike Lemaitre, Gamow had a tremendous flair for publicizing and popularizing his own theories, a flair that, within a few years, would establish his element theory- soon to be dubbed the Big Bang, ironically, by its detractors - as the dominant cosmology. His propagandist talents are demonstrated in the first sentence of the article proposing his views -
"It is generally agreed at present that the relative abundance of the various chemical elements were determined by physical conditions existing in the universe during the earlier stages of its expansion"- which was not at all the case: only a handful of scientists had accepted Lemaitre's primeval atom and perhaps only two or three believed that this could explain the origin of the elements.
But if it hadn't been true before, Gamow changed that: in 1947 he published the immensely popular and well-written book, One, Two, Three, Infinity, which gave a lively and sweeping overview of modern physical science and astronomy. The last chapter presents the Big Bang as accepted fact.
Gamow's persuasive writing and his use of the analogy to the A-bomb, so vivid to the entire post-war population, made his theory plausible to the lay world of science writers and readers. I grew up in the fifties, and remember how exciting I found his books, which were among those that turned me toward physics and astronomy. Gamow's idea had an immediate appeal to his colleagues in nuclear science as well.
Yet the rapid and widespread acceptance of Gamow's theory of a temporally finite universe was as sharp a break with past scientific thinking as Einstein's spatially finite universe had been. The Big Bang completed the swing of the cosmological pendulum, to the medieval universe- finite in extent, having a definite origin in an instant in time, and created by a process no longer at work in the universe. Gamow's Big Bang was a rejection of nearly all the premises that had evolved over the course of the past few hundred years of scientific development- the infinite nature of the universe, and the assumption that its evolution could be described in terms of processes observable here and now.
To the average layman the theory was certainly a shocking and fascinating one. Yet it seemed another insult to common sense, as Einstein's had been. If the universe had an origin in time, what came before it? What started it? The Big Bang seemed, on the surface, an invitation to hypothesize some supernatural power as the initiator of this titanic explosion.
Moreover, even before it was proposed, Gamow's theory of the origin of the elements had been undercut. Gamow had argued that the stars' temperatures are too low to create elements heavier than helium. From nuclear experiments it was known that hydrogen would fuse to form helium at temperatures as low as ten million degrees, which are known to exist at a star's core. But fusing helium to carbon requires much greater temperatures- more than a billion degrees- because the more protons there are in a nucleus the more they repel other nuclei, so far more energy is needed to overcome this repulsion and fuse.
Gamow contended that because these high temperatures couldn't be achieved by stars, the heavier elements must have been formed in the more intense heat of the Big Bang. But in April of 1946, several months before the publication of Gamow's theory, British astronomer Fred Hoyle put forward an alternative hypothesis involving stars that have exhausted their hydrogen fuel. In an normal star, hydrogen is converted to helium in the dense hot core of the star. The tremendous pressure generated by the radiation pushing outward from this core supports the rest of the star, preventing it from collapsing under its own gravity. As the core of the star is depleted of hydrogen, it contracts, increasing its temperature, and burning the remaining fuel faster - thus preventing the overall collapse of the star.
Once the core is entirely converted to helium, no more fusion of hydrogen can take place; there is nothing to support the weight of the star, so it rapidly contracts, and as it does, the temperature swiftly increases at the core. Hoyle calculated that the temperature would soon reach the billion or so degrees needed to start the fusion of helium to carbon. Once again, the energy pouring out of the core would support the weight of the star, stopping its contraction, until the helium is consumed. This process would continue, producing oxygen from carbon, and so on, eventually building up all the elements, either by fusion or by the same neutron-capture process Gamow used in the Big Bang. And with each contraction the star would spin more rapidly, eventually spewing much of its mass into space.
Hoyle accounted for the production of heavy elements by a process that continues into the present-day universe, and thus can - unlike the Big Bang - be verified. Moreover, he calculated that this process would produce the elements in roughly the observed proportions. Had the Big Bang occurred, the two processes together would have produced more heavy elements than are actually observed.
The Big Bang In Eclipse
... in 1957, after years of steady work- aided by advances in nuclear physics and stellar observations- Margaret and Gregory Burbridge, William Fowler and Hoyle published a comprehensive and detailed theory showing how stellar systems could produce all the known elements in proportions very close to those observed to exist. In addition, the theory accounted for the growing evidence that the elementary composition varies from star to star, something that would not be possible if the elements were produced by the Big Bang. The new theory was rapidly accepted as substantially correct.
The researchers showed that the most common elements - helium, carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, and all the other elements lighter than iron - are built up by fusion processes in stars. The more massive the star, the farther the fusion process can proceed, until it develops iron; at that point no more energy can be derived from fusion, since the iron nucleus is the most stable of all. Thus, when a star exhausts its fuel, it collapses, and the unburned outer layers of the star suddenly mix as they fall into the intensely high temperatures of the core. The star explodes as a supernova, a "little bang", that outshines an entire galaxy for a year. In this explosion, the heavier nuclei absorb still more neutrons, thereby building up the heaviest elements, including radioactive ones like uranium. This explosion scatters the new elements into space, where they later condense into new stars and planets. The earth and the entire solar system was, five billion years ago, formed from the debris not of the Big Bang but of a supernova.
... just as Lemaitre's Big Bang failed when cosmic rays were shown to be produced in the present-day universe rather than the distant past, so Gamow's failed when the chemical elements were shown to be produced by present-day stars.
The End Of The Golden Age
The annual number of cosmology papers published skyrocketed from sixty in 1965 to over five hundred in 1980, yet this growth was almost solely in purely theoretical work: by 1980 roughly 95 percent of these papers were devoted to various mathematical models, such as the "Bianchi type XI universe." By the mid-seventies, cosmologists' confidence was such that they felt able to describe in intimate detail events of the first one-hundredth second of time, several billion years ago. Theory increasingly took on the characteristics of myth- absolute, exact knowledge about events in the distant past but an increasingly hazy understanding of how they led to the cosmos we now see, and an increasing rejection of observation.
In astrophysics too theoreticians relied on extensive data from nuclear scientists and their accelerators, or on observers' giant radio and optical telescopes- or on even more expensive satellites. By contrast, theoretical cosmologists seemingly need no data at all. A few, especially in the later seventies, started using computers for simulations; but most of their time-consuming calculations needed nothing more than paper and pencil. Cosmology was scientific research on the cheap!
The tremendous growth of the theoretical side inevitably biased the entire field against observation, which became secondary to the "real" work of manipulating equations. Cosmologists came to look down on the observing astronomer who spent long nights at the telescope.
It took no great insight to realize that if the Big Bang theory was basically wrong, as had been thought as recently as the early sixties, then these researchers were simply wasting time and talent. A challenge to the Big Bang theory would threaten the careers of several hundred researchers. It could hardly be surprising that by the end of the seventies virtually no papers challenging the Big Bang in any way were accepted for presentation at major conventions or in publication in major journals. It became simply inconceivable that the Big Bang could be wrong- it was a matter of faith.
Yet in the course of this golden age, not a single new confirmation of the theory had emerged. No new phenomena predicted by theoreticians had been observed, or any additional feature of the universe explained. In fact, serious conflicts between theory and observation were developing.
The first and most serious was the problem of the origin of the galaxies and other large-scale inhomogeneities in the universe. The extreme smoothness of the microwave background posed another, more theoretical problem. According to Big Bang theory, points in the universe separated by more than the distance light can have traversed since the universe began (about ten or twenty billion light-years) can have no effect on one another. As a result, parts of the sky separated by more than a few degrees would lie beyond each other's sphere of influence. So how did the microwave background achieve such a uniform temperature?
The Fourth Big Bang: Inflation
As the eighties progressed, the level of theoretical fancy rose higher. The Higgs field began to produce objects like cosmic strings; these too served to explain away such problems as galaxy formation. Finally cosmologists took off on their own, going the particle theorists one better by postulating quantum gravitational theories that bring gravity under the same theoretical framework as the GUTs' three forces. From this effort came the most bizarre theoretical innovation of the eighties- baby universes- pioneered by Stephen Hawking. At the scale of 10 -33 cm, less than one-million-trillionth of a proton's diameter, space itself is, according to this idea, a sort of quantum foam, randomly shaping and unshaping itself; from this, tiny bubbles of space-time form, connected to the rest by narrow umbilical cords called wormholes. These bubbles, once formed, then undergo their own Big Bangs, producing complete universes, connected to our own only by wormholes 10 -33 cm across. Thus from every cubic centimeter of our space, some 10 to the 143 or so universes come into existence every second, all connected to ours by tiny wormholes, and all in their turn giving birth to myriad new universes- as our own universe itself emerged from a parent universe. It is a vision that seems to beg for some form of cosmic birth control.
During this entire period, none of the cosmologists' speculations received observational confirmation- in fact, the foundations of this theoretical structure were being undercut. Even with dark matter, the Big Bang still could not account for the low level of microwave anisotropy, or the formation of galaxies and stars. Nor could it accommodate Tully's large-scale supercluster complexes. And the dark matter itself was ruled out by new observation and analysis. The Big Bang in all its versions has flunked every test, yet it remains the dominant cosmology; and the tower of theoretical entities and hypotheses climbs steadily higher. The cosmological pendulum has swung fully again.
Today's cosmologists have, as Alfven puts it,
"taken Plato's advice to concentrate on the theoretical side and pay no attention to observational detail."They are creating a perfect edifice of pure thought incapable of being refuted by mere appearances.
They have thus returned to a form of mathematical myth. A myth, after all, is just a story of origins, which is based on belief alone, and as such cannot be refuted by logic or evidence. Neither can the Big Bang. Entire careers in cosmology have now been built on theories which have never been subjected to observational test, or have failed such tests and been retained nonetheless. The basic assumption of the medieval cosmos - a universe created from nothing, doomed to final destruction, governed by perfect mathematical laws that can be found by reason alone - are now the assumptions of modern cosmology.
Certainly this development is due in part to the growing legitimacy within cosmology of a purely deductive method, justified by Einstein himself. In 1933 he said,
"It is my conviction that pure mathematical construction enables us to discover the concepts and the laws connecting them, which gives us the key to the understanding of nature ... In a certain sense, therefore, I hold it true that pure thought can grasp reality, as the ancients dreamed."
Today's cosmologists, with the support of this lofty authority, proudly proclaim that they have abandoned experimental method and instead derive new laws from mathematical reasoning. As George Field says,
"I believe the best method is to start with exact theories, like Einstein's, and derive results from them."
As we have seen, Einstein himself did not use this deductive method in making his great breakthroughs. More important, I think, he would have been horrified to see what his words have been used to justify: even in his unsuccessful later work he ruthless rejected theories clearly contradicted by observation. Yet today's cosmologists take the deductive method as a rationalization for clinging to long-disproven theories, modifying them into bizarre towers of ad hoc hypotheses and complexities- something Einstein, the lover of simplicity and beauty in both nature and mathematics, would never have tolerated.
If the wealthiest members of society earned billions by mere manipulation of numbers, without building a single factory or mill, it didn't seem to strange that scientific reputations could be made with theories that have no more relation to reality. If a tower of financial speculation could be built on debt - the promise of future payment - then, similarly, a tower of cosmological speculation could be built on promises of future experimental confirmation.
Fortunately for science, even the perfection of existing technologies, such as the computer, requires a broad base of scientific research. But it is fundamental research- investigations whose findings don't seem to be immediately useful- that suffer first when technological development slows. Today those areas are clearly cosmology and particle or high-energy physics- where the link between science and technology, theory and human progress, has been broken almost completely. It is here that, as in post classical Greece, the stagnation of society has led to the return of mathematical myths, a retreat from the problems of base matter to the serene contemplation of numbers.
Myth and Science
When Alfven and his colleagues were developing an alternative cosmology, he opened a broad attack on the methodological and philosophical underpinnings of the Big Bang. In 1978 he formulated the broad thesis that I have elaborated here- that the Big Bang is a return to an essentially mythical cosmology. Over the millennia, Alfven argued, cosmology has alternated between a mythical and scientific approach - an alternation he termed the cosmological pendulum.
The difference between myth and science is the difference between divine inspiration of 'unaided reason' (as Bertrand Russell puts it) on one hand and theories developed in observational contact with the real world on the other, Alfven writes.
The Ptolemaic system - based on the unquestioned acceptance of the unchanging heavens, the centrality of earth, and the necessity of perfect circular motion - is a mythical cosmology. The Copernican system, as perfected by Kepler and Galileo, is an empirical one: ellipses are not more beautiful than circles, but they are the planets' orbits.
Since it is without empirical support, Alfven concluded,
the Big Bang is a myth, a wonderful myth maybe, which deserves a place of honor in the columbarium which already contains the Indian myth of a cyclic Universe, the Chinese cosmic egg, the Biblical myth of creation in six days, the Ptolemaic cosmological myth, and many others.
The reason why so many attempts have been made to guess what the state several billion years ago is probably the general belief that long ago the state of the Universe must have been much simpler, much more regular than today, indeed so simple that it could be represented by a mathematical model which could be derived from some fundamental principles through very ingenious thinking. Except for some vague and unconvincing reference to the second law of thermodynamics, no reasonable scientific motivation for this belief seems to have been given. This belief probably emanates from the old myths of creation. God established a perfect order and "harmony" and it should be possible to find which principles he followed when he did so. He was certainly intelligent enough to understand the general theory of relativity, and if He did, why shouldn't He create the Universe according to its wonderful principles?"
"Worst of all, this approach allows theory to rule over observation, like the Ptolemaic astronomers who refused to look through Galileo's telescope. Today cosmology is the hands of scientists who ... ' had never visited a laboratory or looked through a telescope, and even if they had, it was below their dignity to get their hands dirty. They looked down on the experimental physicists and the observers whose only job was to confirm the high-brow conclusions they had reached, and those who were not able to confirm them were thought to be incompetent. Observing astronomers came under heavy pressure from theoreticians. The result was the development of a cosmological establishment, like that of the Ptolemaic orthodoxy, which did not tolerate objections or dissent.
Quasars and Black Holes
The central radio source and emerging jets looked exactly like quasars and active galactic nuclei that emit such jets- which has long been observed, and which Alfven had theorized plasma processes can generate. Evidently there is no need for a black hole at the galactic center to generate such energy, because trapped magnetic energy, squeezed by the pinch effect, can do the trick even better.
Quasars appear to be only a light-year across, compared with the one hundred thousand light years of a galaxy and the ten thousand light-years cell-size of his stimulation.
In 1989, however, new evidence developed which will probably doom the black-hole hypothesis. Gas and plasma near the center of galaxies has always been observed to move at a high velocity, up to 1500 km/sec for our own galaxy, and similar or higher values for others. These velocities are generally treated as evidence for a black hole whose powerful gravitational field has trapped the swirling gases. But the two scientists at the University of Arizona, G.H and M.J. Rieke, carefully measured the velocities of stars within a few light-years of the center of our galaxy, and found the velocities are no higher than 70km/sec, twenty times slower than the plasma velocities measured in the same area. since the stars must respond to any gravitational force, their low velocities show that no black hole exists. The high-speed gases must therefore be trapped only by a magnetic field, which does not affect the stars.
Tully's results quickly became a hot topic in cosmological circles. However, any alternative to the Big Bang remained almost unknown, since plasma cosmology was routinely rejected by astrophysical journals, and our papers were published only in plasma physics journals, which astronomers never read.
The Search For Beauty
If the Big Bang is wrong, then many of the basic ideas of fundamental physics are wrong as well. The same methods that have led cosmology into a blind alley have also simultaneously stalled the advance of knowledge of the structure of matter and energy.
Fundamental or particle physics, the study of the underlying structure of matter and energy, focuses on the effort to unify the basic forces of nature. As far as is known, the interactions of matter can be described in terms of four forces: gravitation, electromagnetism, and two nuclear forces- the strong force responsible for keeping the nucleus together (the source of nuclear energy), and the weak force responsible for radioactivity and the decay of the nucleus.
As we've seen, over a century ago Maxwell unified two previously separated but related forces - electricity and magnetism - into a single force, electromagnetism, and elaborated its laws and many of its properties. Similarly, today's fundamental physicists hope to develop a theory that will unify all four forces, and thereby to explain the nature of the particles that make up matter - electrons, protons, neutrons, and a host of others.
In itself, this is a fine idea: science has frequently advanced by unifying hitherto distinct phenomena under a single theoretical concept. But it has also advanced by discovering new phenomena not covered by any previous theory. The problem in presenting particle physicists' search for such unified theories is that it is based overwhelmingly on certain mathematical concepts derived from pure reason, rather than on observation. Moreover, this theory is viewed not as the next step in an unlimited search for knowledge but as the Holy Grail of science, the final absolute knowledge that will explain the universe and everything in it, a Theory of Everything.
The goal of this work is nothing less than a complete explanation of the universe, to be achieved
within the lifetime of many of those working today,as Stephen Hawking puts it. Such a Theory of Everything will explain not only the four forces, all the particles, the universe itself, galaxies, stars, planets, and people, but it will also be so simple a set of equations that it can be
written on a T-shirt.Or, as John Wheeler of the University of Texas puts it,
To my mind there must be at the bottom of it all, not an equation, but an utterly simple idea. And to me that idea, when we finally discover it, will be so compelling, so inevitable, that we will say to one another, 'Oh, how beautiful. How could it have been otherwise?Such a theory will complete the main task of science, leaving only a mopping up of details, except for one major question, in Hawking's view: Why does the universe exist? Once we know the answer to that final question we will then achieve final knowledge; we will, in his words,
know the mind of God.
The Big Bang and Religion
So we should not be surprised that today cosmology remains entangled with religion. From theologians to physicists to novelists, it is widely believed that the Big Bang theory supports Christian concepts of a creator. In February of 1989, for example, the front-page article of the New York Times Book Review argued that scientists and novelists were returning to God, in large part through the influence of the Big Bang.
Astrophysicist Robert Jastrow echoes the same theme in his widely noted God and the Astronomers: the Big Bang of the astronomers is simply the scientific version of Genesis, a universe created in an instant, therefore the work of a creator. These ideas are repeated in a dozen or more popular books on cosmology and fundamental physics.
Such thinking is not limited to physicists and novelists, who could perhaps be dismissed as amateur theologians. Ever since 1951, when Pope Pius XII asserted that the still-new Big Bang supports the doctrine of creation ex nihilo, Catholic theologians have used it in this way. The pope wrote in an address to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences,
In fact, it seems that present-day science, with one sweeping step back across millions of centuries, has succeeded in bearing witness to that primordial 'Fiat lux' [Let there be light] uttered at the moment when, along with matter, there burst forth from nothing a sea of light and radiation, while the particles of the chemical elements split and formed into millions of galaxies ... Hence, creation took place in time, therefore, there is a Creator, God exists!
To many in the Judeo-Christian tradition, the idea of a universe infinite in time and space is not allowed for the same reasons Augustine argued two millennia ago: infinity is exclusive to the deity, and thus prohibited for the material universe. To say that the universe is unlimited is to obscure a crucial difference between God and nature, and thus to advocate pantheism- the idea that nature itself is inherently divine and, perhaps, needs no God. Thus a belief in an infinite cosmology implies heresy. Such reasoning is intimately linked to the arguments used against Nicholas of Cusa, Copernicus and Giordano Bruno hundreds of years ago. For many theologians they have lost none of their force today.
For many this all proves that the meaning of the universe resides in a progress toward God to be achieved in the last judgment. But to many existentialists (and physicists) this vision is one of complete meaninglessness. Bertrand Russell, for example, writes: "All the labor of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius are destined to extinction in the death of the solar system- all these things, if not quite beyond dispute, are yet so nearly certain that no philosophy which rejects them can hope to stand.
Cosmologists such as Edward Harrison describe a similar end:
The stars begin to fade like guttering candles and are snuffed out one by one. Out in the depths of space the great celestial cities, the galaxies cluttered with the memorabilia of ages, are gradually dying. Tens of billions of years pass in the growing darkness ... of a universe condemned to become a galactic graveyard.
Paul Davies, another cosmologist, writes:
No natural agency, intelligent or otherwise, can delay forever the end of the universe. Only a supernatural God could try to wind it up again.
The ability of human society to make increasingly better use of energy flows by increasing the level of technology would preclude both an end to life and even an end to the growth of life. Cosmic pessimism is unsupported by science.
... the idea that the evolution of humankind is purely an accident, divinely engineered or otherwise, ignores the vast mass of evidence that there are long-term trends in biological evolution. Over these millions of years there has been an irregular but unmistakable tendency toward adaptability to a greater range of environments, culminating in human adaptation to virtually any environment. Over this period the intelligence of the most developed animals on earth has risen with increasing speed, from trilobites, to fish, to amphibians, to the dinosaurs, to mammals, to primates, to the hominid apes and the direct ancestors of humankind.
Of course, through this long period there have been many chance events, many zigs and zags, advances and setbacks, which determined the exact timing and mode of the development of a creature capable of social evolution. Yet this unpredictability in no way erases the long-term tendency that makes the development of higher levels of intelligence, and eventually something resembling human beings, all but inevitable - as inevitable as the development of amino acids in a primal chemical soup.
Thus we find that the apparently improbable accidents of the universe are neither the products of a random and incomprehensible cosmos nor evidence for a designing creator. Rather, they are misinterpretations of the general evolution of the universe.
The old cosmology and the old physics leave humanity with a choice between despair at contemplating a purposeless cosmos and abandonment of the scientific project and the ascription to the deity of all that science can not explain. In either case a gap is created between a rational humanity and a fundamentally irrational, incomprehensible nature - whether or not it is guided by God.
What is precluded by the new cosmology is the allocation of the mysteries left by bad science to the charge of a deity so clumsy as to leave his calling cards as incomprehensibilities written across the galaxies or in the equations of physics. It assumes that the universe is intelligible and that the scientific method can push back the frontiers of ignorance, so that no mystery will remain forever unexplained."
"Once more, in the past twenty years, we have been faced with the paradox of a gigantic unfilled need for goods, for food, clothing, and housing, side by side with a "lack of markets," a saturation of the market for goods that can be sold at a profit. While children in Latin America lack clothing, clothing manufacturers are closing in the United States. While cities fall into decay and millions go homeless, steel mills are dismantled as unprofitable.
As the 1989 report of UNICEF put it:
Three years ago, former Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere asked the question, "must we starve our children to pay our debts?" That question has been answered in practice. And the answer has been "Yes". In those three years hundreds of thousands of the world's children have given their lives to pay their countries' debts, and many millions more are still paying the interest with their malnourished minds and bodies.
The Big Bang Theory Under Fire by William C. Mitchell
(As Published in Physics Essays Volume 10, Number 2, June 1997)
Abstract
The very old big bang problems (of the singularity, smoothness, horizon, and flatness) and the failed solutions of inflation theory; newer Big Bang problems relating to missing mass (as required for a flat inflationary universe), the age of the universe, radiation from the "decoupling" ("smearing" of black body spectrum), a contrived Big Bang chronology, the abundance of light elements, and red shift anomalies; and problems, newer yet, regarding inconsistencies of red shift interpretation, curved space, inflation theory, the decelerating expansion of a Big Bang universe, and some additional logical inconsistencies of Big Bang theory are presented.
Key words: singularity, smooth universe, flat universe, average density, age, black body radiation, neutrinos, chronology, light elements, red shift, curved space, quasars, inflation, decelerating expansion. (Note: Numbers in brackets refer to references at the end of this document.)
Contents
1. IS A SINGULARITY ACCEPTABLE?
2. IS THE UNIVERSE SMOOTH?
3. ORIGINAL SMOOTHNESS OR SMOOTHING?
4. IS THE UNIVERSE FLAT?
5. IS DENSITY TOO LOW?
6. UNIVERSE TOO OLD?
7. SOURCE OF RADIATION?
8. CONTRIVED CHRONOLOGY?
9. SOURCE OF LIGHT ELEMENTS?
10. DOPPLER RED SHIFT?
11. WHAT SPACE CURVATURE?
12. DOES INFLATION FIX THE BIG BANG?
13. WHAT IS DECELERATING?
14. DOES LOGIC PREVAIL?
15. WHAT TO DO?
Introduction
In one of its several variations the big bang cosmological theory is almost universally accepted as the most reasonable theory for the origin and evolution of the universe. In fact, it is so well accepted that virtually every media article, story or program that touches on the subjects of astronomy or cosmology presents the big bang (Big Bang) as a virtual proven fact. As a result, the great majority of the literate populace of the world, including most of the scientists of the world, accepts big bang theory (Big Bang Theory) as scientific fact.
Education establishments involved in the fields of astronomy, astrophysics, theoretical physics and cosmology are dominated by those who have accepted Big Bang as the theory to be pursued. Scientists who seriously question the Big Bang are generally considered disruptive, ridiculed and derogatorily referred to as big bang bashers.
As a result of that attitude alternate cosmological possibilities are left uninvestigated. Untold man-hours and vast sums of money are spent in pursuit of data in support of the prevailing theory. Such endeavors are not in keeping with the ideals of impartial scientific investigation. It is all but forgotten that the Big Bang is not fact, but an unproven theory.
Fortunately there long has been an unindoctrinated minority of scientists, both amateur and professional, who continue to discover and present observational evidence and logic that provides reason to doubt the accepted paradigm. Some of better known and most effective of the scientists in this struggle are Halton Arp of the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Germany, Anthony Peratt of the Los Alamos National Laboratories, and Jayant Narlikar of the Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics in India. Other well known astronomers/cosmologists who have long fought for the proper consideration of alternate cosmologies include Geoffrey and Margaret Burbridge, Fred Hoyle, Herman Bondi, Thomas Gold and Eric Lerner.
Due to the efforts of those and other fighters for even-handed cosmological investigation and, despite the powerful influence of mainstream Big Bang cosmologists, evidence against the Big Bang has been building to the point where the world may soon start to doubt it. Some of that evidence is briefly reviewed in this paper.
1. IS A SINGULARITY ACCEPTABLE?
The oldest and perhaps best known problem of Big Bang Theory is that of the singularity. At the first instant of the Big Bang universe, in which its density and temperature were infinitely high, is what is known to mathematicians as a singularity. That situation is considered to be a breakdown of theory. That is, it cannot be assumed that the laws of physics as we know them can apply to that event, thus presenting serious questions about it.
In addition, the postulated creation of the entire mass and energy of the universe out of nothing in the first instant of time, seems to represent an extreme violation of the law of conservation of mass/energy.
According to prevailing theory, before that instant, space and time did not exist. Although to some, who confuse their religious ideas with science, this is seen as a reasonable interpretation of their religious beliefs, to others the beginning of space and time might represent a significant problem.
If there were a Big Bang, it would seem that events during the first instant of time would involve the instantaneous acceleration of the enormous number of particles (the entire mass) of the universe to relativistic velocity; and some variations of Big Bang Theory postulate velocities well above the speed of light. Because the acceleration of even a minute particle to the speed of light requires an infinite amount of energy, the Big Bang might have required on the order of an infinity times and infinity of ergs; not to mention the additional energy that would be required to overcome the gravitational attraction of the entire mass of the universe.
It has been suggested that this singularity problem can be solved by postulating a universe of zero net energy;(2) a universe wherein the positive kinetic energy, the potential energy, and the Einsteinian equivalent energy of the mass of the universe is equal and opposite to the negative energy of gravity. Somehow, if the universe is to collapse in the future as some believe, all the energy that was expended in the birth and expansion of the Big Bang universe was only borrowed; someday to be paid back. However, that doesn't provide an adequate explanation for the source of the energy requirement described above.
It should be noted that this zero net energy explanation couldn't reasonably be postulated for other than a recollapsing universe. However, as will be discussed further on, observational evidence has all but ruled out the possibility of the collapsing Big Bang universe case, thus adding to the incredibility of zero net energy; and certainly it would seem that the positive energy of the potential, kinetic and the enormous mass equivalent energy of the of the universe must be far greater than the negative energy of its gravity. For any Big Bang universe case the postulated zero net energy idea appears to be unrealistic.
Inflation theory, (3,4) which will be discussed further on, has claimed to solve the singularity problem (and other Big Bang problems as well) but it requires an enormous quantum theory vacuum fluctuation (2) and, according to some, an enormous cosmic repulsive force to provide for a Big Bang. These are purely speculative ideas that have no known means of experimental verification.
2. IS THE UNIVERSE SMOOTH?
One of the older problems of Big Bang Theory, that of its postulated large-scale smoothness of the universe, appears to be the result of what was originally a simplifying assumption (5-8) that was made to aid in the solution of Einstein's equations of general relativity on which the Big Bang is based. That apparently resulted in the establishment of smoothness as a basic tenet of Big Bang Theory; that is, the universe is isotropic (the same in all directions) and homogeneous (the same everywhere). Those ideas, combined with curved space, provide the basis for the Big Bang concepts of space expansion (rather than simple expansion of matter in space), for a "Big Bang that happened everywhere", and for a centerless universe.
However, the observed irregularities of the universe, which include vast galactic formations, (9) gigantic voids and sheets of galaxies, (10) and the "Great Wall", (11,12) that is estimated to stretch across one half billion light years of space, tend to deny that smoothness.
The smoothness of the distribution of the matter of the universe is said to be verified by the smoothness of microwave background radiation (MBR) that is received from all directions of space. That radiation is believed by adherents of Big Bang Theory to have come directly from a smooth Big Bang. However, it would seem that both the improbability of a smooth Big Bang explosion (explosions experienced in our time certainly are not smooth), and presently observed irregularities of the universe, tend to deny a Big Bang as the direct source of MBR.
(Regarding the plasma universe explosion postulated by Hannes Alfven, a leading advocate of Big Bang cosmology P. J. E. Peebles wrote,
"It would be hard to imagine that the explosion produced a spherically symmetric expanding system of galaxies ..."(13) One wonders why similar doubt is not expressed about a smooth Big Bang.)
The enormous expansion of the early universe at speeds far in excess of that of light, in accordance with inflation theory, is said to solve the Big Bang smoothness problem. However, postulating a different form of expansion doesn't change the present state of the universe, and, as will be discussed further on, it is not clear that inflation can provide an adequate explanation for the expansion of the universe at speeds far in excess of that of light.
3. ORIGINAL SMOOTHNESS OR SMOOTHING?
Another old Big Bang problem that is related to the smoothness problem is called the horizon problem. In the event, however unlikely, that the universe should ultimately prove to be smooth (on an extremely large scale), an additional problem would have to be faced. Regardless of whether the Big Bang was chaotic or smooth, how it might have become smooth or remained smooth is not explained. Because of the enormous initial rate of expansion of a Big Bang universe, faster-than-light signaling would have been necessary for gravitational (or other) forces to produce or retain that smoothness over billions of years. However, even the transmission of information at or above the speed of light is a violation of the theory of relativity.
The rapid expansion of the very early Big Bang universe in accordance with inflation theory is thought to provide a solution to this horizon problem. As Peebles has also written,
"The recent tendency is to assume this embarrassment can be resolved by inflation or some other adjustment of the physics of the very early universe". (13) But again, it is not clear just how the more rapid expansion of inflation might solve this problem.
4. IS THE UNIVERSE FLAT?
An additional older problem of Big Bang Theory is the flatness problem. A special theory is required to explain a flat "Euclidean" Big Bang universe of uncurved space that is accepted by many mainstream cosmologists. In that universe the average density would be at a critical level, that is, at a balance between the average density of a "closed" Big Bang universe (expanding at less than escape velocity) that would eventually collapse, and the average density of an "open" Big Bang universe (expanding at greater than escape velocity) whose expansion would continue to increase, but at an ever decreasing rate. The postulated expansion of this flat Big Bang universe (just at escape velocity) would eventually cease to increase, and thereafter remain at a fixed size.
It has been postulated that a universe of zero net energy, in addition to solving the singularity problem, might solve this flatness problem. However, as mentioned above, that concept is highly suspect. Additionally, the observed low average density of the universe, probably not more than a few percent of the critical amount, appears to deny the possibility of the flat universe case.
As in the case of the previously mentioned problems, the enormous rate of expansion of the early Big Bang universe as postulated by inflation theory, is said to provide a solution to the flatness problem. However, it is not clear how an enormously fast rate of expansion might result in an average density at the critical level; and the low observed density of the universe represents an especially severe problem to inflation theory. That situation has provided the incentive for a frantic search for the "missing mass" that would be necessary to increase the average density to the expectations of inflation theory.
5. IS DENSITY TOO LOW?
Actually, the density of the universe appears to be insufficient to support any Big Bang universe case: closed, flat or somewhat open. That situation presents what is called the missing mass problem.
The directly observed density of the universe is estimated at only one to two percent of the required density for the above cases. Calculations based on observed dynamics of galactic rotation of a small sample of galaxies indicate there may be as much as ten times that amount of matter in their vicinities.
There is insufficient evidence to indicate that is true of the majority of galaxies, and little evidence that the average density of intergalactic space is nearly that high. However, even if the density of all of space were found to be as high as in the vicinity of those sample galaxies, resulting in an average density on the order of ten percent of the critical amount, that is still far short of the level necessary for the usual Big Bang cases.
If the Big Bang universe is flat, requiring its average density to be at the critical level (somewhat less for the open Big Bang universe and somewhat more for the closed Big Bang universe), as much as 99 percent of its mass might consist of non-baryonic matter of no known characteristics other than gravitational attraction. Investigators have made valiant efforts, both theoretical and observational, to find that missing matter, both cold dark matter (CDM) and hot dark matter (HDM). All sorts of exotic stuff, including photinos, gravitinos, small black holes, magnetic monopoles, solitons, cosmic strings and sheets, MACHOS (massive astrophysical halo objects), WIMPS (weakly interacting massive particles), massive neutrinos (meaning neutrinos that have mass), and several others have been proposed, but no significant observational evidence in support of those has been discovered.
[Because it has been said that the universe, in addition to photons, is flooded with neutrinos from the Big Bang, some theorists had suggested that electron neutrinos are more massive than previously thought by particle physicists; possibly as much as 30 eV (rather than less than 10 eV) which might be sufficient to solve the missing mass problem. For the same reason, it has more recently been suggested that muon neutrinos might have a mass of about 2500 MeV, more than 10,000 times greater than previously estimated. However, experiments failed to support an electron neutrino of 30 eV, (14) and there is no experimental evidence in support of a muon neutrino of 2500 MeV.]
Inflation theory, that is claimed to solve several of the major problems of conventional Big Bang Theory, postulates a flat universe. (15) For that reason the significance of the missing mass problem has in recent years increased in the minds of those who support that theory. As mentioned, that has provided increased incentive for the as yet unsuccessful search for missing mass.
6. UNIVERSE TOO OLD?
A major problem, known as the age paradox, (16) plagues Big Bang Theory: The postulated age of the Big Bang universe may be incompatible with observations.
Despite the insistence of some Big Bang advocates on a lower value, recent observations of distant galaxies have confirmed the Hubble constant to be approximately 80 km/sec/Megaparsec (about 24.5 km/sec/million light years). (13,17) Hubble time, the age 12 billion years. The age of a flat or near flat Big Bang universe, as postulated by Big Bang theorists in recent years, would be two thirds of that, or about 8 billion years; somewhat more than that for an open Big Bang universe, and somewhat less than that for a closed Big Bang universe. That age is only about one half of the known age of some stars and galaxies, (18,19) presenting an obviously impossible situation.
Conversely, a flat Big Bang universe having an age of 15 billion years, would require a Hubble time of 22.5 billion years and a Hubble constant of about 42.2 km/sec/Mpc; little more than one half of the observed value.
Even if the age of the Big Bang universe was considerably more than 8 billion years (and the Hubble constant correspondingly smaller), there may not have been time for the formation of observed gigantic galactic configurations. The time required for those to form (due to gravity) in accordance with Big Bang Theory) has been estimated to be on the order of 100 billion years.
The heavy elements observed in the solar system, and in other stars and galaxies, require at least one previous stellar cycle. (20,21) The formation of those stars, their life time, their collapse, explosion and dispersal, and the subsequent formation of our galaxy, sun and planets might well have required a period considerably greater than 8 billion years. Because of the high probability of more than one previous stellar cycle in this process, an age of at least tens of billions of years may have been required.
Astronomical observations support a period of rotation of our galaxy of 1/4 billion years. (22,23) At that rate, if the Big Bang had occurred on the order of 10 billion years ago, there would have been time for only 40 rotations. However, astronomical theory tells us that the rate of rotation has increased from a much lower rate as the galaxy has evolved, (24) providing time for considerably less than 40 rotations. As judged by the present spiral form of the galaxy, it might be expected that an order of magnitude more revolutions, and thus an order of magnitude more that 10 billion years, may have been required for the formation of our galaxy. These comments apply to other spiral galaxies as well as our own.
Possibly adding to this age problem, there have been observations of polarization of radiation received from distant quasars indicating the presence of relatively strong magnetic fields. Some of those quasars are reckoned by Big Bang theorists to be observed as they were at less than one tenth of the age of the universe, (25) far sooner than such fields might have developed in accordance with Big Bang Theory.
On the whole it would seem that the age of the universe is more likely to be at least several tens of billions of years, rather than 10 to 15 billion years as believed by Big Bang advocates. As in the case of the missing mass problem, Big Bang age problems alone appear to provide convincing evidence against all of Big Bang Theory.
It should be noted that Big Bang theorists' estimates of the age of the universe are based on their belief in an expanding universe. That in turn is based on the accepted Doppler interpretation of red shift which, as we will see, may present additional difficulties.
7. SOURCE OF RADIATION?
The microwave background radiation (MBR), that is received uniformly from all directions of space, considered by many to be the most important evidence in support of Big Bang Theory, may be inconsistent with that theory.
In addition to the previous comment that one would expect the observed gigantic galactic formations to cause irregularities in the isotropy of MBR reception, the observed spectrum of the MBR, corresponding to a near perfect black body temperature of 2.7 K, doesn't agree very well with temperatures predicted by various Big Bang theorists. Those predictions had varied over a range of 5 to 50 K. (26) History also shows that some Big Bang cosmologists' "predictions" of MBR temperature have been "adjusted" after-the-fact to agree with observed temperatures.
The prediction of 5 K (by Ralph Alpher and Robert Herman in 1948), (27) which has been selected as a basis for agreement with the observed temperature, was made by those who had accepted a Big Bang scenario that included concepts that were incorrect. Those included the idea that all of the elements of the universe were produced in the Big Bang, which was later determined to be erroneous.
If the temperature of the universe was at absolute zero, all matter would collapse. The temperature of radiation from space might reasonably be expected to be some small number of degrees above that temperature. In fact, some physicists (including Sir Arthur Eddington in 1926 and Andrew McKeller in 1942)(28) had estimated temperatures in the range of 2 to 3 K; closer to that of the MBR than has been estimated by Big Bang cosmologists.
According to Big Bang theorists, the "decoupling era", from whence MBR is said to have originated, may have lasted at least several hundred thousand years. (29) It has occurred to me that, if radiation comes to us directly from that period, later radiation would have lower source temperature and less red shift, resulting in distortion, "smearing", (24) of the postulated black body spectrum from the decoupling. Big Bang theorists may have assumed that the temperature and red shift changes of that period would cancel; but unless the universe had linear (fixed-rate) expansion, that cancellation could not be perfect. Because Big Bang theorists believe, not in a fixed rate of expansion, but in a non-linear decelerating expansion, it would seem reasonable to suppose that a less than perfect black body spectrum might be received from the Big Bang decoupling than that which is observed.
Smearing of a black body spectrum from the decoupling would also result if the shape of the Big Bang universe were less than perfectly spherical during that period. Although Big Bang advocates believe in that smoothness, it may be difficult for others to accept an explosion of such symmetry.
If MBR from the decoupling had caused thermal equalization (thermalization) of the matter of the space that surrounds us, as other theorists have suggested, and that matter were quite remote, the large irregularities of galactic formations might be expected to cause fairly large directional variations of the MBR. If the MBR is radiated from thermalized matter relatively close to us (but perhaps outside of our galaxy), the MBR might possess the observed isotropy. However, the possibility should not be overlooked that, as the work of Eddington, McKeller and others indicates, the observed MBR may be the result of sources of
energy other than the Big Bang decoupling.
Some Big Bang cosmologists have contended that thermalization of surrounding space could not produce a spectrum so closely resembling that of black body radiation. However there is theoretical support for the existence of particles in space (called whiskers) (30-32) that in turn supports the possibility of thermalization. Physical evidence of these particles has been found in meteorites that have struck the earth. (33,34)
Further doubt about the Big Bang as a source of the MBR results from consideration of the amplitude of MBR signal strength received here on earth. Calculations indicate that the received energy may be orders of magnitude lower than would be expected from the enormous energy release of the postulated Big Bang decoupling. (24)
According to Big Bang Theory, positively curved space provides the explanation for omnidirectional reception of MBR from the decoupling. However, characteristics of the positively curved space of a closed universe cannot be ascribed to the flat or somewhat open universe that is accepted by the majority of Big Bang theorists.
As presented above, the closed Big Bang universe would seem to be ruled out by age and density considerations. But if that had not been the case, and space were positively curved as postulated for the closed Big Bang universe case, neutrinos from the Big Bang would be raining on us as well as photons. Those have not been detected. By similar reasoning, in a Big Bang universe of positively curved space, rather than being "clumped" at great distances (as they are perceived to be by the presently accepted interpretation of red shift data), quasars would be more evenly distributed in direction, distance and speed. If that were found to be true it might tend to deny one of the alleged proofs of Big Bang Theory, that of an evolving universe.
Photons [that is, electromagnetic radiation (EMR) in the infrared region] are believed to originate from the Big Bang decoupling, to be red-shifted by about 1,000, and to be received from all directions of space as MBR. According to Big Bang Theory, neutrinos are also said to originate from the Big Bang, but at a much earlier time. They, like the MBR, are believed to fill the space that surrounds us. According to quantum wave theory, although they are particles rather than EMR, they are considered to have a red shift much greater than that of Big Bang photons. Their energy is therefore too low to allow their detection: their frequency below the capability of available technology. Although neutrinos from nearby sources (from the sun and from Supernova 1987A) have been detected, the treatment of Big Bang neutrinos as waves is said to provide an explanation for the lack of their detection. However, the application of wave theory to neutrinos, but not to other particles (electrons, protons, neutrons, etc.) believed to have originated in the Big Bang at or before the time of the decoupling, appears to present a logical inconsistency.
It would seem that, upon consideration of the available evidence, rather than supporting Big Bang Theory, the presence of MBR might actually be counted against it. It seems more reasonable to postulate natural radiation from matter or energetic processes in relatively nearby space as the source of MBR.
8. CONTRIVED CHRONOLOGY?
The time line of events from the first instant of the Big Bang until the present time, as presented by various cosmologists in their attempts to reconcile Big Bang Theory with quantum theory, have been inconsistent with their own versions of Big Bang Theory thus presenting serious chronology problems.
As an example of this, although there are few if any Big Bang adherents who believe in a universe that has expanded at a constant rate since the Big Bang, the chronology that is most often presented indicates a fixed-rate universe that is 10 billion years old. (3,35,36)
That chronology, indicating a Hubble time of 10 billion years, requires a Hubble constant of almost 100 km/sec/Mpc (30 km/sec/million light years), a value far in excess of that accepted by Big Bang supporters. For a Hubble constant of that value, all of the usual Big Bang cosmological cases (somewhat open, flat or closed) would require the Big Bang to have occurred at about 2/3 of Hubble time, or approximately 6 billion years ago, which is incompatible with current Big Bang thinking.
The great majority of Big Bang advocates believe in a considerable degree of gravitational deceleration of the expansion of the universe since the Big Bang for either a somewhat open, a flat or a closed universe. For those cases the plot of energy and temperature vs. time would require considerable decreasing slope as time progresses, rather than the linear expansion that is usually depicted.
Furthermore, the nonlinearity required for a decelerating expansion, would require considerable modification to the occurrence of quantum theory events (and other events, such as the decoupling), in the Big Bang chronology as customarily presented.
Study of this matter leads one to suspect that the timing of the events of the Big Bang Theory chronology as usually shown may merely have been contrived. Any amount of energy, measured or theoretical, required for the creation of particles of quantum theory can be placed between the infinite energy (infinite temperature and density) of the Big Bang singularity and the present low energy level of space (a temperature of 2.7 K).
Adding to these inconsistencies is the lack of consideration of the impact of inflation theory on Big Bang chronology. Although many of those who present chronological information have accepted inflation theory, and must be aware of its impact, they continue to describe Big Bang events essentially in accordance with a chronology, already inconsistent with pre-inflation Big Bang Theory, that shows a linear decrease in energy and a linear increase in size as functions of time.
9. SOURCE OF LIGHT ELEMENTS?
The agreement of the observed abundance of light elements in the universe with those predicted by various Big Bang cosmologists is frequently cited as one of the primary proofs of their theory, but this proof also faces some difficulties.
The study of historical data shows that over the years predictions of the ratio of helium to hydrogen in a Big Bang universe have been repeatedly adjusted to agree with the latest available estimates of that ratio as observed in the real universe. (Human science is very fallible!) The estimated ratio is dependent on a ratio of baryons to photons (the baryon number) that has also been arbitrarily adjusted to agree with the currently established helium to hydrogen ratio. These appear to have not been predictions, but merely adjustments of theory ("retrodictions") to accommodate current data.
Big Bang cosmologists tell us that the observed ratio of helium to hydrogen in the universe could only have been the result of Big Bang thermonucleosynthesis. However, that presumes, not only a precise knowledge of the processes of a Big Bang, but a precise knowledge of the processes of other possible cosmologies. If, for example, another cosmology should suggest that helium has accumulated as a result of other processes (37,38) (such as stellar nucleosynthesis over tens of billions of years), having given other cosmological possibilities little or no consideration, on what basis might a Big Bang theorist deny that? In addition to helium, Big Bang theorists have in the past maintained that other light elements including boron, beryllium and lithium, can only have been produced by Big Bang nucleosynthesis (fusion). However, it has been found that these elements can be produced by cosmic rays acting on supernovae remnants (fission). (29) It is also possible for deuterium to have been produced by processes in the formation of galaxies, rather than in Big Bang nucleosynthesis as claimed by those theorists.
Adding to those problems, recent observations have shown that the abundance of helium is less than that indicated by standard Big Bang Theory, and that the ratios of beryllium and boron are inconsistent with that theory. (39-41)
10. DOPPLER RED SHIFT?
Inconsistencies regarding the current interpretation of observed red shift present many problems to Big Bang Theory. Many of those have to do with the distant massive bodies that are called quasars.
As presently utilized, red shift data results in the perception of extremely great masses and brilliances of quasars. Variations in the level of radiation from these sources (27,42) require their size to be extremely small and their densities to be extremely great. These extreme characteristics suggest that the present interpretation of red shift data as Doppler shift doesn't tell the whole story about the speed and distance of remote massive bodies in space.
Red shift data as presently used also shows quasars to be "clumped" at great distances (great relative velocities). According to Big Bang Theory that would require the formation of large numbers of quasars too soon after the Big Bang. That interpretation of red shift data also results in the anomaly of quasars at various distances, and thus of various ages, that are observed to have similar electromagnetic spectrums.
But perhaps even in greater conflict with Big Bang Theory, the clumping of distant quasars in all directions would appear to put us at the center of the universe. That situation, known as the Copernican Problem, is in direct conflict with the basic Big Bang Theory tenet of smoothness; that is, isotropy and homogeneity.
Dependence on Doppler red shift for the determination of velocity and distance also results in the perception of an unreasonably large number of distant quasars having associated superluminal flares. (32,43) Some simple mathematics can show that, if the perceived distance of those quasars was less, fewer of such flares would be indicated. (Also, mathematical investigation of the velocity relationships between quasars perceived to be at great distances and their perceived superluminal flares, has provided unintelligible results.)
Big Bang theorists accept special relativity, and thus the application of the Lorentz transformations to the red shift of radiation from galaxies and quasars that are believe to be at great distances and receding from us at "relativistic" speeds. Those speeds are thus believed to result in red shifts that are greater than would be expected by the linear application of a Hubble constant. That would appear to be reasonable for a universe consisting of matter that is expanding as the normal result of an explosion. However, because Big Bang theorists insist that it is not the matter of the universe, but the space of the universe that is expanding, I have suggested an additional problem: Although the Lorentz transformations may apply to matter, they do not apply to massless space. It is therefore inappropriate to apply them to a Big Bang universe.
In addition to quasar related problems, there is considerable observational evidence indicating that the presently accepted interpretation of red shift data is to some degree erroneous. Observations over many years by highly regarded astronomers have shown many "companion galaxies"(27) to have considerably higher red shifts than those of unmistakably neighbouring galaxies. Most notable among those astronomers is Halton Arp, who has also provided considerable evidence that radiation from newly formed galaxies is in some manner red shifted by other than Doppler effect. (44)
Although it has long ago been ruled out by Big Bang cosmologists as an important factor, massive dense bodies, that may not be massive enough and dense enough to become black holes, may be massive enough and dense enough to cause appreciable amounts of gravitational red shift (Einstein shift)(24,49) of their radiation.
In support of this it is known, for example, that even our sun has a small gravitational red shift (z 0.000002); and it is suggested that the differences in masses and radii of stars of some binary pairs(50) may be the cause of observed differences in their average red shift.
Any of these possible causes of red shift may add to Doppler red shift (if that exists) and thus cause the appearance of greater relative speed and distance of quasars and other massive bodies in space. If that should prove to be so, problems regarding the interpretation of red shift data might be eased or eliminated.
It seems obvious that, if other causes of the red shift of radiation from massive bodies were given consideration, problems resulting from the conventional interpretation of red shift might be eased. Quasars might be found to be much closer and their velocity much lower, thus solving the perception of excessive brilliance, mass, density, large numbers of superluminal flares and other problems, including the clumping of quasars at great distances. (If red shift were found to have causes other than or in addition to Doppler effects, the velocity of distant quasars would fall on a lower, more linear portion of a plot of velocity vs. red shift that incorporates relativistic effects [as derived from the Einstein- Lorentz transformations]. The perception of clumping would thus be reduced.)
It should be pointed out that Hubble himself was not convinced that red shift was exclusively due to Doppler effect. Up to the time of his death he maintained that velocities inferred from red shift measurements should be referred to as apparent velocities. (45,51)
11. WHAT SPACE CURVATURE?
No references to negatively curved space can be found in Einstein's Relativity, The Special and General Theories, or in other early books on Einstein's work such as Biography of Physics by George Gamow or Understanding Relativity by Stanley Goldberg. In all of those there is only discussion of positively curved space resulting from gravitational attraction (or equivalent acceleration).
Not only have Big Bang theorists thoroughly accepted the questionable concept of positively curved space but, based on some later interpretations of relativity, (5,8) they have decided that space may be negatively curved.
Accordingly, the closed Big Bang universe has positively curved space, the flat Big Bang universe has uncurved space, and the open Big Bang universe has negatively curved "saddle shaped" space. (In the second two of these space doesn't close on itself, and it has no edge.)
According to Einstein, space is curved due to the presence of matter, but is only positively curved. Therefore, if it is believed that space is uncurved or negatively curved, it has occurred to me that there must be something in the Big Bang universe to overcome the positive curvature resulting from the presence of the matter of the universe.
If the universe is flat, that "something" must be just sufficient to compensate for the gravitational influence of the matter of the universe and, if the universe is open, it must be sufficient to overpower that influence.
In other words, logic would seem to indicate that Big Bang theorists' acceptance of uncurved space of a flat universe, or the negatively curved space of an open universe, implicitly acknowledges the existence of negative gravity. There must be more than an equation to provide the rationale for flat or negative curvature in a universe of significant mass; the mathematics must represent some physical phenomena; something like cosmic repulsion. (24)
For many years it had been thought that a term in Einstein's equations known as cosmic repulsion was his "greatest mistake"; even he had reached that conclusion. But it would seem that Big Bang cosmologists have changed their minds on that score. Some of them have now accepted cosmic repulsion, now called the cosmological constant, as an essential feature of inflation theory. (1)
Some Big Bang theorists have also suggested (quite logically) that cosmic repulsion provides the solution to the age paradox. If it is like negative gravity, and of sufficient magnitude, the expansion of the universe in the past may have been slower than indicated by the presently observed Hubble constant. If that is so, the Big Bang may have occurred sufficiently long ago for their universe to be older than some stars are observed to be, thus rescuing the Big Bang from its age problem. That, of course, would result in a kind of universe not normally envisioned by Big Bang enthusiasts; one that has an ever increasing rate of expansion. (As interpreted from red shift data in the usual manner, out to a red shift of one [z = 1], astronomical evidence would appear to indicate a universe having a fixed rate of expansion. (13) However, because of measurement uncertainties and possible relativistic effects at a relative distance of about one billion light years and beyond, there is considerable doubt concerning the constancy of the Hubble "constant".)
It would seem that logical inconsistencies regarding the curvature of space might tend to discredit the prevailing Big Bang cosmology.
12. DOES INFLATION FIX THE BIG BANG?
Inflation theory, that was invented for the purpose, is said to provide simple solutions to some of the problems of pre-inflation Big Bang Theory. (3,4) However, convincing support for claims of solutions to the singularity, smoothness, horizon, and flatness problems is lacking.
Inflation theorists have alleged that the inflationary expansion of the early Big Bang universe, involving speeds orders of magnitude greater than that of light, (3,4) did not involve the travel of mass or energy, and thus did not violate the theory of relativity in solving the singularity problem. But how inflation, as opposed to ordinary expansion, can in some manner displace all the mass or energy of the universe without physically moving it, defies common understanding. A violation of Einstein's prohibition of speeds in excess of that of light seems to be inherent in that process.
The quantum concept of false vacuum, previously postulated only to deal with the spontaneous generation of the tiny fundamental particles of modern physics, is called upon by inflation theory to instantaneously produce the mass and energy of the entire universe. But this sudden appearance of the universe from the energy of vacuum, (1) still essentially out-of-nothing, does not escape the perception of an enormous violation of the law of conservation of mass/energy.
Inflation theorists have also explained that an enormous cosmic repulsive force (an enormously large cosmological constant)(1) provided the expansive force necessary for an exponential expansion of the universe. However, as previously noted, both the birth of the universe from a gigantic vacuum fluctuation(2,52) and the expansion of the universe from a gigantic cosmic repulsive force are speculations that have no means of verification.
Perhaps as a form of insurance for their claim of inflation's enormous expansion of the early universe without violation of the conservation of mass/energy, some inflation theorists have borrowed the Big Bang zero net energy idea that an equivalent amount of energy is merely on loan from the energy of the vacuum; that loan to be repaid upon the ultimate collapse of the universe.
Because of the apparent impossibility of a collapsing closed universe, that repayment might be put off indefinitely. However, even if the Big Bang universe were some day to collapse, that wouldn't happen for many billions of years: seemingly a long time for the loan of all of its mass and energy to go unpaid. Furthermore, those who support inflation theory espouse, not a closed universe, but a flat one, so the zero-net-energy idea appears to conflict with their own beliefs.
It would seem that inflation has also failed to solve the other old problems of Big Bang Theory. To state that inflation smoothed the universe by stretching out irregularities of the first instant of the Big Bang, but left just enough of them to provide the "seeds" for the later formation of galaxies may be a matter of faith, not science. To state that inflation at orders of magnitude faster than the speed of light solved the horizon problem that had been attributed to the high rate of expansion of pre-inflation Big Bang Theory, may be illogical. To state that inflation, that is said to result in an exponential expansion of somewhere between 10 to the 50th power (Guth's original inflation)(3) and 10 to the 1,000,000th power (Linde's new inflation), (4) would cause anything greater than a minutely low average density, far less than the critical density required for a flat Big Bang universe, seems difficult to accept.
Inflation theorists postulate a universe that expanded to unimaginable size, and thus claim that we can observe only a tiny portion of it. But they continue to tell us that quasars can be seen to within a small percentage of the distance to the Big Bang; two very conflicting ideas. In addition, some Big Bang cosmologists who have accepted inflation, continue to describe events essentially in accordance with the typical chronology of pre-inflation Big Bang, having a linear decrease in temperature (energy) and a linear increase in size as functions of time, without consideration of the appropriate changes necessary to accommodate inflation.
In addition to its apparent failure to solve pre-inflation Big Bang problems, it would seem that inflation has introduced some new problems and complexities.
13. WHAT IS DECELERATING?
A new quandary, that I have called the Big Bang deceleration problem, has occurred to me. (24) If the universe is expanding and, if that expansion is decelerating due to gravitational attraction of the mass of the universe, as Big Bang theorists believe, they have not made it clear whether the expansion of space is decelerating, or whether the expansion of the matter of space is decelerating.
Most Big Bang theorists agree that, rather than the matter of space, space itself is expanding. However, if the expansion of space is decelerating, the physical law that relates the deceleration of space with gravitation has not been made clear. It would seem reasonable to expect the expansion of the matter of a Big Bang universe to be decelerating, but, if that is so, matter must have an increasing inward velocity relative to expanding space; or perhaps the expansion of both matter and space is decelerating possibly doubling the effect of gravity. A lack of clarity regarding this matter would seem to add to the difficulties of Big Bang Theory.
14. DOES LOGIC PREVAIL?
In addition to those suggested above, some miscellaneous logical oversights regarding Big Bang Theory are presented in the these closing paragraphs.
The first of these has been alluded to, but is repeated for emphasis. Big Bang cosmologists repeatedly ascribe closed universe attributes to the flat and open Big Bang universe cases. Those attributes include the concepts of closed, curved, expanding space that has no edge, and a centerless universe in which the Big Bang happened everywhere: ideas that do not apply to a flat Euclidian universe or an open universe of saddle shaped space. It would seem that in those cases the universe must have a center at which the Big Bang once occurred, thus denying a basic tenet of Big Bang Theory.
Because they believe it solves one of Big Bang Theory's major problems (despite its apparent unlikelihood), some Big Bang cosmologists still favor a closed cycling Big Bang universe. They feel that, because it didn't come out-of-nothing, but from the remains of a previous universe, the explosion of a collapsed universe avoids the singularity problem. However, there is no theory in physics that can account for the re-explosion, or "bounce", of the universe. (2) Famous physics professor John Archibald Wheeler, who believed in the bounce, once said that black holes are "laboratory models" for the collapsing universe case. (54) However, prevailing theory denies that a giant black hole might explode. (55)
Big Bang advocates have criticized the once competing steady state cosmology of Hoyle, Bondi and Gold because it provided no explanation for the origin of the universe. However, at the same time, some of those espouse a cycling Big Bang universe, that has repeatedly collapsed and re-exploded in the past (and that might continue to do so in the future), which exhibits the same no-origin flaw that they ascribed to steady state theory. Big Bang theorists have in the past indicated that all galactic formation had started in the same early era, that is, within the first billion years following the Big Bang. However, recent evidence has increasingly indicated much later and continuing formation of galaxies. (56,57) In the light of this evidence the previous view is no longer stressed. However, it would seem that such "waffling" might tend to discredit Big Bang Theory.
Furthermore, it seems unlikely for galaxies to have formed from particles of matter that were initially departing from each other at or above the speed of light. No known force, gravity, electrodynamic or other, may have been strong enough to cause those particles to accrete. This problem has been recognized by some Big Bang theorists in the past who have postulated that turbulence in the early Big Bang could have started the necessary accumulation. However, it is difficult to imagine, even in the presence of turbulence, how the great departing speed of particles could allow their accretion. Furthermore, the insistence of most Big Bang theorists on extreme smoothness of the Big Bang explosion would also seem to deny that possibility.
Theorists insist that an expanding universe provides important evidence in support of Big Bang Theory. However, they seem to ignore the fact that expansion (if true) might support other cosmologies, including the rejected steady state cosmology.
Recent convincing evidence that the number of families of fundamental particles in the universe is limited to just three, and recently observed "lensing"(49,58) of radiation from distant matter by the gravitational fields of closer matter in space (as predicted by Einstein) have both been cited as added proof of Big Bang Theory. However, as in the cases of Hubble expansion, the presence of MBR, and the abundance of light elements, these observations might provide support to alternate cosmologies equally well.
Big Bang theorists have implied that their solution to Olber's paradox, (24,27,59) that the relativistic speeds (large red shifts) of distant bodies of the universe dim the sky, provides proof of Big Bang Theory. But, instead of relying on that solution, it might be more reasonable to accept the straightforward solution that Olber himself had long ago offered, that closer, smaller, cooler matter can obscure visible radiation from more distant, larger, warmer matter of space. In his discussion of C. V. L. Charlier's clustering hierarchical universe(13), P. J. E. Peebles has recognized that the view of distant galaxies is obscured by dust in our galaxy. And certainly telescopic images of supernovae appear to show that "dust" hides more distant matter. If correct, that solution would seem to support no cosmology in particular.
There has been a consistent pattern of neglect of evidence that might tend to discredit the prevailing Big Bang cosmology. Examples of this are the vast amount of data compiled over many years by Halton Arp that shows the proximity of objects of higher red shifts to galaxies of lower red shift, (44) and by Anthony Peratt regarding the role of plasma physics in the formation of galaxies. (60) Although that data is well known, its impact on the field of cosmology is all but ignored.
15. WHAT TO DO?
Although the problems presented here may seem overwhelming to those who question big bang theory, mainstream cosmologists insist that, like Dr. Pangloss, theirs is the best of all possible worlds. They are confident that all Big Bang problems will ultimately be overcome by further pursuit of evidence in support of that theory. However, on the chance that they could be wrong, it might be prudent to also pursue some alternate paths of investigation.
One of the more prominent alternate cosmologies that deserves more attention is that presented by Anthony Peratt and Eric Lerner(61); a plasma cosmology based on the earlier work of Hannes Alfven, wherein electromagnetic forces have determined the evolution of the universe rather than gravitational force in accordance with General Relativity. I admire Hannes Alfven's logic.
The tired light concepts that deny Doppler red shift, and the vast amount of "anomalous red shift" data that has been presented by Halton Arp, both of which tend to deny a major premise of big bang theory, certainly should be taken more seriously.
Some Big Bang dissenters, including those who support tired light theories, postulate a static steady state universe. However, I feel that the evidence for expansion, at least in the "near universe" (out to many thousands of light years?) is quite convincing, and therefore, have proposed a new steady state cosmology (24) similar to the old SS cosmology of Hoyle, Gold, and Bondi. (62)
In addition to the apparent imperfection of its perfect cosmological principle, a lack of rationale for either the generation of new matter in space or for expansion of the universe, appears to have caused the failure of old SS theory failed to win acceptance. This newly postulated SS cosmology overcomes those failings by proposing the generation of new matter from the energy of space in accordance with quantum theory, and expansion due to Einstein's previously condemned (but now accepted in inflation theory) cosmic repulsion. (These are proposed, not on the incredibly enormous scales required by inflation theory, but on scales just sufficient for the generation of fundamental particles and to overcome the force of gravity in remote empty space.)
One of these postulated alternate cosmologies, combinations or portions of those or others, unknown or omitted here, may or may not prove to be viable but, in view of the many Problems of the Big Bang Theory, alternates possibilities certainly deserve more serious consideration.
References (William C. Mitchell)
1. P. Davies, Superforce <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0671476858/nonameA/> (Simon & Schuster, NY, 1984).
2. E. P. Tryon, Nature (14 December 1973).
3. A. H. Guth, and Paul J. Steinhardt, Sci. Am. (May 1984).
4. A. Linde, New Scientist (7 March 1985).
5. M. Rees and J. Silk, Sci. Am. (June 1970).
6. E. McMullin, Am. Philos. Quarterly (July 1881).
7. G. Gamow, Sci. Am. (March 1954).
8. J. V. Narlikar, New Scientist (2 July 1981).
9. F. Flam, Science (November 1991).
10. S. A. Gregory, and L. A. Thompson, Sci. Am. (March 1982).
11. A. Fisher, Popular Science (May 1991).
12. A. Chaikin, Omni (August 1991).
13. P.J.E. Peebles, Principles of Physical Cosmology <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0691019339/nonameA/> (Princeton University Press, 1993).
14. D. Goldsmith, Discover (October 1992).
15. A. F. Davidsen, Science (15 January 1993).16. R. Jayawardhana, Astronomy (June 1993).
17. W. Freedman, Sci. Am. (November 1992).
18. J. R. Gott III, J. E. Gunn, D. N. Schramm and B. M. Tinsley, Sci. Am. (March 1976).
19. G. Abell, D. Morrison and S. Wolfe, Realm of the Universe (Saunders College Publishing, Philadelphia, 1988).
20. S. Gilkis, P. M. Lubin, S. S. Meyer, and R. F. Silverberg, Sci. Am. (January 1990).
21. D. Hegyi, "Interstellar Medium" in Encyclopedia of Physics, 2nd ed. (VCH Publishers, NY, 991).
22. J. Silk, The Big Bang (W. H. Freeman, NY, 1989).
23. S. van der Bergh and J. Hesser, Sci. Am. (January 1993).
24. W. C. Mitchell, The Cult of the Big Bang <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0964318806/nonameA/> (Cosmic Sense Books, NV, 1995).
25. J. Boslough, Masters of Time <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0201622378/nonameA/> (Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1992).
26. D. Sciama, "Cosmology Before and After Quasars" in Cosmology +1 (W. H. Freeman, NY,1977).
27. H. Friedman, The Amazing Universe (The National Geographic Society, Washington, DC,1985).
28. S. G. Brush, Sci. Am. (August 1992).
29. S. Weinberg, The First Three Minutes <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0465024378/nonameA/> (Basic Books, NY, 1977).
30. R. V. Coleman, "Whiskers" in Encyclopedia of Physics, 2nd ed. (VCH Publishers, NY, 1991).
31. J. Kanipe, Astronomy (April 1992).
32. H. C. Arp, G. Burbridge, J. V. Narlikar, N. C. Wickramasinghe, Nature (30 August 1990).
33. P. Yam, Sci. Am. (October 1990).
34. "Before There Was Earth, There Was Lightning" in Discover (July 1993).
35. J. D. Barrow and J. Silk, Sci. Am. (April 1980).
36. D. N. Schramm, and G. Steigman, Sci. Am. (June 1988).
37. R. Cowen, Science News (19 October 1991).
38. S. Bowyer, Sci. Am. (August 1994).
39. A. Gibbons, Sci. Am. (January 1992).
40. M. Bartusiak, Discover (August 1992).
41. J. A. Frieman, and B.-A. Gradwohl, Science (4 June 1993).
42. M. Schmidt, and F. Bello, "The Evolution of Quasars" in Cosmology + 1 (W. H. Freeman, NY, 1977).
43. C. D. Dermer, and R. Schlickeiser, Science (18 September 1992).
44. H. C. Arp, "Fitting Theory to Observation From Stars to Cosmology" in Progress in New Cosmologies: Beyond the Big Bang (Plenum Press, NY, 1993).
45. E. Hubble, Observational Approach to Cosmology, (Oxford University Press, 1937). (see also)
46. G. Reber, "Endless, Boundless, Stable Universe," in University of Tasmania Occasional Paper, (University of Tasmania,1977).
47. P. Marmet and G. Reber, IEEE Trans. on Plasma Sci. (April 1989).
48. P. Marmet, Phys. Essays 1,24, (1988).
49. P. J. E. Peebles, D. N. Schramm, E. L. Turner and R. G. Kron, Nature (29 August 1991).
50. P. Marmet, IEEE Trans. on Plasma Phys. (February 1990).
51. D. E. Osterbrock, J. A. Gwinn and R. S. Brashear, Sci. Am. (July 1993).
52. G. Gale, "Cosmological Fecundity: Theories of Multiple Universes" in Physical Cosmology and Philosophy edited by J. Leslie (Macmillan, NY, 1990)
53. B. J. Carr, Irish Astron. J. (March 1982).
54. J. A. Wheeler, "Beyond the End of Time" in C. W. Misner, K. A. Throne and J. A. Wheeler, Gravitation (W. H. Freeman, NY, 1971). (see also)
55. T. J.-L. Courvoisier, and E. I. Robson, Sci. Am. (June 1991).
56. F. Flam, Science (28 February 1992).
57. S. Flamsteed, Discover (24 June 1992).
58. Jacqueline N. Hewitt, "Gravitational Lenses" in Encyclopedia of Physics , 2nd ed. (VCH Publishers, NY, 1991).
59. A. Webster, "The Cosmic Background Radiation" in Cosmology +1 (W. H. Freeman, NY,1977).
60. A. L. Peratt, IEEE Trans. of Plasma Sci. (December 1996).
61. E. J. Lerner, The Big Bang Never Happened <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=067974049X/nonameA/> (Times Books, 1991).
62. H. Bondi , F. Hoyle, and T. Gold, Rival Theories of Cosmology (Oxford University Press,1960).
'Seeing Red' by Halton Arp
There is now a fashionable set of beliefs regarding the workings of the universe, greatly publicized as the Big Bang, which I believe is wildly incorrect. But in order to enable people to make their own judgments about this question, we need to examine a large number of observations. Observations in science are the primary and final authority.
More than 10 years have passed and, in spite of determined opposition, I believe the observational evidence has become overwhelming, and the Big Bang has in reality been toppled. There is now a need to communicate the new observations, the connections between objects and the new insights into the workings of the universe - all the primary obligations of academic science, which has generally tried to suppress or ignore such dissident information. (It makes one wonder, perhaps with profit, whether there are other uncertain assumptions on which much of our lives are built, but of which we are innocently overconfident.)
The present book is sure to outrage many academic scientists. Many of my professional friends will be greatly pained. Why then do I write it? First, everyone has to tell the truth as they see it, especially about important things. The fact that the majority of professionals are intolerant of even opinions which are discordant makes change a necessity. Those friends of mine who also struggle to get the mainstream of astronomy back on track mostly feel that presenting evidence and championing new theories is sufficient to cause change, and that it is improper to criticize an enterprise to which they belong and value highly. I disagree, in that I think if we do not understand why science is failing to self-correct, it will not be possible to fix it.
At this point, I believe we must look for salvation from the non-specialists, amateurs and interdisciplinary thinkers - those who form judgments on the general thrust of the evidence, those who are skeptical about any explanation, particularly official ones, and above all are tolerant of other people's theories. (When the complete answer is not known, in a sense everyone is a crackpot - Gasp!)
If the cause of these redshifts is misunderstood, then distances can be wrong by factors of 10 to 100, and luminosities and masses will be wrong by factors up to 10,000. We would have a totally erroneous picture of extragalactic space, and be faced with one of the most embarrassing boondoggles of our intellectual history.
Because objects in motion in the laboratory, or orbiting double stars, or rotating galaxies all show Doppler redshifts to longer wavelengths when they are receding, it has been assumed throughout astronomy that redshifts always and only mean recession velocity. No direct verification of this assumption is possible, and through the years many contradictions have arisen and been ignored. The evidence presented here is, I hope, convincing because it offers many different proofs of intrinsic (non-velocity) redshifts in every category of celestial object.
It is interesting to note that at first, Einstein felt this solution was incorrect. Later he said it was correct, but of no consequence. Finally he accepted the validity of this solution, but was so unhappy with the fact that it was not a stable solution, i.e., it either collapsed or expanded, that he retained the cosmological constant he had earlier introduced in order to keep the universe static. (This constant was later referred to as the cosmological fudge factor.)
In 1924, Hubble persuaded the world that the "white nebula" were really extragalactic, and a few years later announced that the redshifts of their spectral lines increased as they became fainter. This redshift-apparent magnitude relation for galaxies became known as the Hubble law ( through lack of rigor, often referred to as the redshift-distance relation). At this point Einstein dropped his cosmological constant as a great mistake, and adopted the view that his equations had been telling him all along, that the universe was expanding. Thus was born the Big Bang theory, according to which the entire universe was created instantaneously out of nothing 15 billion years ago.
This really is the entirety of the theory on which our whole concept of cosmology has been rested for the last 75 years. It is interesting to note, however, that Hubble, the observer, even up to his final lecture before the Royal Society, always held open the possibility that the redshift did not mean velocity of recession but might be caused by something else.
In his seminal book Realm of the Nebulae Hubble wrote: "On the other hand, if the interpretation as velocity shifts is abandoned, we find in the redshifts a hitherto unrecognized principle whose implications are unknown."
In the ensuing years the evidence discussed in the present book has built up to the point where it is clear that the velocity interpretation can now be abandoned in favor of a new principle which stands on a firm observational and theoretical foundation.
But of course, the stunning aspect of the ROSAT observations was that two quasars of redshift .63 and .45 are actually physically linked by a luminous connection to a low redshift object of z= .007. When I showed this to the local experts, there were alarmed states followed by annoyance.
This result made it clear that the compact and interacting groups were just a more concentrated ensemble of young, non-equilibrium companion galaxies which had been ejected more recently from the parent galaxy, and were composed of material of higher redshift. Aside from being empirically true, this interpretation solves all the conventional paradoxes of the failure of the galaxies to merge into a single galaxy on a cosmic time scale, and also explains the unbearable presence of "discordant" redshifts.
In later chapters we will show that galaxies and quasars tend to occur at certain preferred redshifts. This quantization implies that galaxies do not evolve with smoothly decreasing redshifts, but change in steps.
One major point of the present book is to try to make it impossible to ignore the enormous amount of mutually supporting significant evidence which all points to the same conclusion.
In the face of 28 years of accumulated evidence, to go on proclaiming that quasars are out at the edge of the universe seems unpardonable.
Summary - Alignments, Quasars, BL Lac's and Galaxy Clusters
1) Objects which appear young are aligned on either side of eruptive objects. This implies ejection of protogalaxies.
2) The youngest objects appear to have the highest redshifts. This implies that intrinsic redshift decreases as the object ages.
3) As distance from the ejecting central object increases, the quasars increase in brightness and decrease in redshift. This implies that the ejected objects evolve as they travel outward.
4) At about z= .3 and about 400 kpc from that parent galaxy the quasars appear to become very bright in optical and X-ray luminosity. This implies there is a transition to BL Lac Objects.
5) Few BL Lac objects are observed implying this phase is short-lived.
6) Clusters of galaxies, many of which are strong X-ray sources, end to appear at comparable distances to the BL Lac's from the parent galaxy. This suggests the clusters may be a result of the breaking up of a BL Lac.
7) Clusters of galaxies in the range z= .4 to .2 contain blue, active galaxies. It is implied that they continue to evolve to higher luminosity and lower redshift.
8) Abell clusters from z= .01 to .2 lie along ejection lines from galaxies like CenA. Presumably they are evolved products of the ejections.
9) The strings of galaxies which are aligned through the brightest nearby spirals have redshifts z= .01 to .02. Presumably they are the last evolutionary stage of the ejected protogalaxies before they become slightly higher redshift companions of the original ejecting galaxies. (p166-7)
Quantization of Redshifts
The fact that measured values of redshift do not vary continuously but come in steps- certain preferred values- is so unexpected that conventional astronomy has never been able to accept it, in spite of the overwhelming observational evidence. Their problem is simply that if redshifts measure radial components of velocities, then galaxy velocities can be pointed at any angle to us, hence their redshifts must be continuously distributed. For supposed recession velocities of quasars, to measure equal steps in all directions in the sky means we are at the center of a series of explosions. This is an anti-Copernican embarrassment. So a simple glance at the evidence discussed in this Chapter shows that extragalactic astronomy and Big Bang theory is swept away. (p195)
On the theoretical front it has become more persuasive that particle masses determine intrinsic redshifts and that these change with cosmic age. Therefore episodic creation of matter will imprint redshift steps on objects created at different epochs. In addition it appears increasingly useful to view particle masses to be communicated by wave like carriers in a Machian universe. Therefore the possibility of beat frequencies, harmonics, interference and evolution through resonant states is opened up. (p195)
My attitude toward this result is that in a Machian universe there must be some signal carrier for inertial mass coming from distant galaxies. (p202)
In the phenomena of quantization, we have a connection from the redshifts of the quasars, to the redshifts of the galaxies, to the properties of the solar system and finally to the properties of fundamental particles like the electrons. The quantization of physical parameters would seem to be governed by the laws of non-local physics, i.e. like quantum mechanics in which the fundamental parameter appears to be time- for example the repetition rate of a spinning electron. It is clear that we are not running out of problems to solve. In fact, contrary to some rumors that we are reaching an end to physics, the more we learn the more primitive our previous understanding appears, and the more challenging the problems become. (p223)
On Academia and 'Belief' in Scientific Theories
After about 45 years, I now know that if the academic theoreticians at that time had not forced his observations into fashionable molds, we might at least not have started off modern cosmology with the wrong fundamental assumption. We could be much further along in understanding our relation to a much larger, older universe - a universe which is continually unfolding from many points within itself.
..the problem is pervasive throughout astronomy and, contrary to its projected image, endemic throughout most of current science. Scientists, particularly at the most prestigious institutions, regularly suppress and ridicule findings which contradict their current theories and assumptions.
One thing has been accomplished, though I now understand what should be called the statistics of nihilism. It can be reduced to a very simple axiom: "No matter how many times something new has been observed, it cannot be believed until it has been observed again."
In view of all the other evidence known to show that quasars, and 3C273 in particular, belonged to the Virgo Cluster, I gloomily came to the ironic conclusion that if you take a highly intelligent person and give them the best possible, elite education, then you will most likely wind up with an academic who is completely impervious to reality.
I had long ago learned that colloquia were events of intense social pressure, and that comments from the floor which questioned the assumptions of the speaker and were not explainable in a few sentences were neither understood nor welcome.
The greatest mistake in my opinion, and the one we continually make, is to let the theory guide the model. After a ridiculously long time it has finally dawned on me that establishment scientists actually proceed on the belief that theories tell you what is true and what is not true! Of course that is absurd - observations and experiments describe objects that exist- they cannot be "right" or "wrong". Theory is just a language that can be used to discuss and summarize relationships between observations. The model should be completely empirical and tell us what relationships between fundamental properties are required.
This is the kind of theory we are looking for - simple, capable of being visualized- one that can connect together the puzzling observational facts that presently confound understanding. It seems to me that this should be the working hypothesis that is useful in opening up new directions of investigation until further paradoxes are encountered. We are certainly not at the end of science. Most probably we are just at the beginning!
In 1964, Fred Hoyle and Jayant Narlikar proposed a theory of gravitation (I would now prefer to call it a theory of mass) which had its origin in Mach's principle. According to this theory every particle in the universe derives its inertia from the rest of the particles in the universe. Imagine an electron just born into the universe before it has time to "see" any other particles in its vicinity. It has zero mass because there is nothing to operationally measure it against. As time goes on it receives signals from a volume of space that enlarges at the velocity of light, and contains larger and larger numbers of particles. Its mass grows in proportion to the number and strength of the signals it receives.
But in a very fundamental sense, the Machian physics which we depend on to fit the observations- that is what bridges the gap between classical dynamics and quantum mechanics. Because the particle "feels" the mass with which it communicates inside its light horizon, it is in contact through an electromagnetic wave whose particle aspect materializes and dematerializes like a quantum.
Cosmologically, the physics that assumes particle masses constant with time is not valid. What goes on in the rest of the universe affects what happens everywhere else. In addition to the pictures they form in their minds, I think it is very important for humans to realize that the fundamental particles that make up their bodies and brains, and thus they themselves, are in some ill understood way in continual contact with the rest of the universe.
