E3 Big Bang

Topic

The central subject of this model is the early universe, specifically the first moments following the Big Bang itself.

The Big Bang was not an explosion occurring *within* space, but rather the very beginning of the expansion of space-time; prior to the Planck time, there is no established physics capable of even describing that early universe.

The temperature of that universe dropped in inverse proportion to the scale factor, and this relationship established specific milestones throughout its history: at one second of age, the temperature was around ten billion degrees; at three minutes—when nucleosynthesis began—it was around one billion; and at 380,000 years—when recombination occurred, releasing the cosmic microwave background—it was around three thousand degrees.

Furthermore, the radiation density of that universe scaled with the fourth power of that same temperature.

The minute asymmetry between baryons and photons present in that early universe—merely one baryon for every 1.6 billion photons—is the ultimate reason why matter exists at all in the entire universe; had that slight excess not existed, matter and antimatter would have completely annihilated each other. Thus, from the early universe with which this account begins to the tiny asymmetry with which it concludes—passing through the falling temperature and its successive milestones—the Big Bang demonstrates how a nearly imperceptible imbalance between particles and antiparticles became the difference between a universe filled with matter and one that is completely empty.

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