DRAFT
OF A CHAPTER
BIG BANG SCIENTIFIC ACCOUNT
OF CREATION
Charles
P. Poole, Jr.
CONTENTS
1. Introduction
2. Technical Background
3. The Big Bang
4. First Four Very Short Eras
5. Fifth and Sixth Longer Eras
6. Present Billion Year Era
7. Solar System and Life on Earth
8. Concluding Remarks
1. INTRODUCTION
In
this chapter we will recount the standard scientific model for explaining the
creation of the Universe, and its development to its present status at the
beginning of the third (anno Domini)
millennium of human history. Perhaps the
word creation is not appropriate for use in a scientific context since
scientists admit that we can know very little about the status of the Universe
prior to the initial 10-43 seconds of its existence when they assert
that it was confined to a region about 10-35 meters in
diameter. What scientists do claim is
that they have a realistic explanation of how the Universe underwent continuous
expansion and development from this initial primordial configuration until,
billions of years later, it reached its present state
comprising over 5x1010 widely dispersed and rapidly receding
galaxies.
2. TECHNICAL BACKGROUND
To
acquire an in-depth understanding of the Big Bang account of the first
instances of creation, it is necessary to have some background in physics. A synopsis of the relevant background is
provided in the background chapter with a link on the sidebar. The present
chapter is written for readers who are not interested in technical details, but
who rather desire a qualitative understanding of the development of the cosmos
to its present stage of dynamic equilibrium whereby our medium sized planet
orbiting a medium sized star in a medium sized galaxy has supported human
civilization for several millennia,
3. THE BIG BANG
We
will describe the scientific account of the creation of the Universe according
to the Big Bang theory in terms of successive time periods called eras, each of
which involved continuous expansion in space, decreasing density, and a
lowering of the temperature. The
beginning was an event at what is termed a singularity in space-time. We know nothing about the real nature of the
singularity, or if anything preceded it.
The first two eras were unimaginably short in duration, the third lasted
perhaps a second, and the fourth a couple of minutes. The remaining three eras had durations of
thousands, then millions, and finally billions of years, respectively.
4. FIRST FOUR VERY SHORT
ERAS
The
first era was the initial Fermi time duration tP =
5.391x10-44 sec when the entire Universe was highly compressed
at an initial point, sometimes referred to as a singularity, confined to a region the size of the Planck
length RP =
1.6161x10-35 meters.
Nothing much can be said about its status during this instant, and space
and time themselves could have been different from what we know them to be now. We can say that matter and energy, including
extremely high frequency analogues of photons, were in an incredibly dense,
incredibly energetic, incredibly hot environment. A measure of how hot the primordial fireball
was is given by the Planck temperature
TP = ( cS/G)˝ c2/kB
=
MP c2/kB = 1.417x1032
K, where MP = (cS/G)˝ = 2.177x10-8 Kg is called the Planck mass, which equals the mass of about 25 moles
of electrons, and kB is Boltzmann’s constant.
At the beginning there was close to complete symmetry between the
fundamental interactions, and between matter and antimatter. Quarks (which bind together to form
elementary particles) were too close to each other to interact in their usual
manner.
The second era, which lasted for perhaps a microsecond (a millionth
of a second), involved a very rapid expansion accompanied by substantial
cooling. During this time the
density of quarks dropped sufficiently so they could bind together in triplets
to form baryons such as protons and neutrons, and join in quark-antiquark pairs to form mesons such as pions. There were initially 109 + 1
quarks for every 109 antiquark, and most
of the quarks and antiquarks were mutually
annihilated in pairs to form photons.
This primordial ratio of 109 photons per baryon is still
characteristic of the Universe today.
The
third era lasted for perhaps a second, and during this period protons and
neutrons were continually transformed into each other, until they reached an equilibrium with 87% protons and 13% neutrons. After being in existence for about one second
the Universe was about the size of the sun.
The
fourth era, which was three or four minutes long, saw the Universe expand to
the diameter of the solar system, and the temperature drop to 109
(10 trillion) degrees kelvin. Neutrino coupled actions became unimportant,
and light elements wee formed through nucleosynthesis
(bonding together of protons and neutrons).
Protons adhered to neutrons via strong interaction bonds to form
deuterium (heavy hydrogen, 2H or D), and then pairs of deuterium
nuclei bonded to form helium-4 nuclei (4He). Almost all the neutrons were consumed by this
helium synthesis, so the mass of the Universe became 2x13 = 26% 4He. The remaining mass was mostly protons, with
traces of deuterium, 3He, and rarefied amounts of other nuclei.
5. FIFTH
The
fifth era lasted for about ten thousand years, and by this time the Universe had
become far larger than our local cluster of galaxies. Radiation was dominant due to the
omnipresence of photons, which interacted with the particle plasma (ionized
gas) containing electrons, protons and charged nuclei. At the beginning
of this era the temperature was several million degrees kelvin,
and the radiation was mainly X-rays. At the end of the era the
temperature had dropped to 105 (a hundred thousand) degrees kelvin, and much of the radiation was in the ultraviolet
region. The photon pressure from this
radiation hindered the action of gravity from forming protostars
or protogalaxies.
The
sixth era, which lasted for about a million years, is called the era of
decoupling. A third of the way through
this era most of the radiation was no longer energetic enough to sustain the
ionized plasma state, so negatively charged electrons combined with positively
charged protons to form neutral hydrogen atoms.
Some small hydride-type molecules form, e.g. hydrogen H2,
water H2O, formaldehyde H2CO, ethanol (ethyl alcohol) C2H5OH,
and carbon monoxide CO. Very few
photons of the ambient radiation were at discrete hydrogen atom absorption
frequencies, so they traveled through space unimpeded, and the Universe became
transparent. Radiation had become decoupled
from or unassociated with matter.
6. PRESENT BILLION-YEAR LONG ERA
The seventh era, which has lasted until the present time, involved star and galaxy formation, with continual dispersal of the latter. Many varieties of stellar objects exist, such as main sequence stars, red giants, white dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes. Stars form because gas particles distributed in space (78% hydrogen, 20% helium, some molecules) experience mutual gravitational attraction and condense. When the accumulated matter becomes massive enough, and the compression becomes great enough, then nuclear fusion reactions take place in the interior of the star. This nuclear interaction involves the fusion of four hydrogen atoms 1H to form helium 4He, and in a star the size of the sun and smaller the fusion takes place via the following three-step process called the proton-proton cycle:
1H +
1H Y 2H +
positron + neutrino (1)
2H +
1H Y 3He +
photon (2)
3He + 3He Y 4He + 1H + 1H +
photon (3)
The interactions of the cycle generate a great deal
of energy which heats the surroundings.
The resulting outward flow of heat and particles from the reaction sites
produce an outward pressure which counterbalances the inward pressure from the
force of gravity. Eventually the star
reaches an equilibrium density and radius consistent with a constant nuclear
reaction rate. Our sun spent ten million
years in formation, will spend ten billion years burning brightly while it
consumes its hydrogen fuel, will then become a red giant for another billion
years, and finally it will cool down, out of fuel.
7. SOLAR SYSTEM
The
solar system took between 30 and 100 million years to form, and is now 4.6
billion years old. Evidence
for life on earth dates back to about 3.5 billion years ago. Eukaryotic fossils: i.e., those of organisms
whose cells have a true nucleus containing
8. CONCLUDING REMARKS
This
completes the description of the Big Bang/Evolution scientific explanation of
how the world began in time, and then spent ten billion years developing to its
present state. The first era lasted for
the extremely short time duration of about 10-43 seconds when the
entire universe was confined to an infinitesimally small region about 10-35
meters in diameter. The next six eras lasted for, respectively, one
microsecond, one second, three or four minutes, ten thousand years
, a million years, and ten billion years. During these eras the Universe expanded
through the enormous range of diameters from 10-35 meters to 10
billion light years. Life has been here
on earth for about three and a half billion years, but man has only been around
for about 300,000 years. This incredible
story of creation is indeed a manifestation of the great glory of God.