The
universe may have existed forever, according to a new model that applies
quantum correction terms to complement Einstein's theory of general relativity.
The model may also account for dark matter and dark energy, resolving multiple
problems at once.
The
widely accepted age of the universe,
as estimated by general
relativity, is 13.8 billion years. In the beginning, everything in
existence is thought to have occupied a single infinitely dense point, or singularity. Only after this
point began to expand in a "Big Bang" did the universe officially begin.
Although
the Big Bang singularity arises directly and unavoidably from the mathematics
of general relativity, some scientists see it as problematic because the math
can explain only what happened immediately after—not at or before—the
singularity.
"The
Big Bang singularity is the most serious problem of general relativity because
the laws of physics appear to break down there," Ahmed Farag Ali at Benha
University and the Zewail City of Science and Technology, both in Egypt,
told Phys.org.
Ali
and coauthor Saurya Das at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada,
have shown in a paper published in Physics Letters B that the
Big Bang singularity can be resolved by their new model in which the universe
has no beginning and no end.
Read
more here.