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The Robertson–Walker minimum length (RWML) theory considers stochastically perturbed spacetime to describe an expanding universe governed by geometry and diffusion. We explore the possibility of static, torsionless universe eras with conserved energy density. We find that the RWML theory provides asymptotically static equations of state under positive curvature both far in the past and far into the future, with a Big Bang singularity in between. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review embarks on a captivating odyssey of tracing the birth of light from the Big Bang to its intricate interplay with materials. It delves into the fundamental truth that nonlinearity is ubiquitous, and induces fascinating spatiotemporal structures, chaos, and complexity in the medium. After a brief exploration of waves and the effect of nonlinearity in diverse domains, the review article focuses on the field of photonics. This comprehensive review dives into the captivating physics of solitons. This study explores the formation of solitons in optical fibers due to specific nonlinear effects within the material, such as the Kerr effect, the fundamental behaviour of solitons in integrable models, diverse interactions, and the formation of intricate soliton molecules, soliton complexes, and soliton crystals within the dissipative optical systems. We analyse key research on optical solitons and highlight the control of optical solitons for advancements in communication systems, signal processing, optical computing, quantum technologies, etc. Through a meticulous research survey, we find that there is a limited understanding of weak soliton interactions. Further, more theoretical models to be investigated for exploring anisotropy of material and optomechanical interplay. Bridging these gaps will definitely propel future soliton research.Article Highlights: Dance of Light and Matter: This review explores how light and matter interact, from their origins in the Big Bang to how they form special light waves called solitons in fibers. Solitons: Beyond Light Waves: We delve into solitons, self-reinforcing light waves, and their unique behaviors in different models. Along with studies on several temporal and spatial solitons it also includes recent studies on soliton molecules, soliton complexes, and soliton crystals with potential applications. Taming Light's Potential: The review highlights key areas for future research to unlock the full potential of solitons. Highlights the need to study the effect of weak interactions in multi-soliton dynamics in complex systems, tells the importance of exploring their behavior in new materials, and integrating them with nanophotonic devices. This work proposes the concept of 'photobot,' intelligent soliton molecules that we believe will be achievable in the near future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is an exercise in elementary mechanics and thermodynamics. It emphasizes the basic difference between mechanics and thermodynamics which lies in the irreversibility of the latter theory. Clausius [1] (Poggendorff's Annalen der Physik, p. 125, 1865) – the discoverer of entropy – was led to express the dichotomy in the famous slogan die Energie der Welt ist constant, and die Entropie der Welt strebt einem Maximum zu. (Gibbs put these slogans on top of his comprehensive memoir [2] (Gibbs, On the Equilibrium of Heterogeneous Substances, pp. 108–248, 1876).) And again Clausius [3] (Über den zweiten Hauptsatz der mechanischen Wärmetheorie, A lecture given at the general session of German natural scientists and physicians in Frankfurt/M on September 23, 1867, 1867) invented the notion of the heat death as the final destiny of the world. Nowadays it has become quiet around the heat death. Says Asimov [4] (Asimov's Biographical Encyclopedia of Science and Technology, 1975): "Though the laws of thermodynamics stand as firmly as ever, cosmologists... [show] a certain willingness to suspend judgement on the matter of heat death." And we, the authors of this article, might add that present-day cosmologists know so little about the universe that heat death is a tiny spot in the sea of ignorance and therefore not worthy of discussion by serious scientists. All the more reason to take a fresh look at the subject. Now, however, this article is most definitely not a contribution to formal and technical cosmology as described in the monograph [5] (Cosmology, 2008) by S. Weinberg, or the popular booklet [6] (Fundamentals. Ten Keys to Reality, 2021) by F. Wilczek. Far from it! We treat a monatomic ideal gas under adiabatic conditions in two situations: The gas in a cylinder under a locked piston which – at some instance – is released; and a homogeneous cloud of gas at rest when – at some time – gravitation is "switched on". It is only by a big leap of imagination that the two cases may be viewed as models for the universe. We also admit that we do not know whether the universe is adiabatic and free of working. Clausius and Gibbs thought so and we follow authority and investigate the validity of the prediction of the heat death and the related idea of the big crunch under these assumptions. We shall confirm the heat death as a very hot event but refute the big crunch. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship of theology and cosmology has been fruitful to both disciplines. This article suggests that the Judaeo-Christian tradition is a key influence in shaping the development of cosmology, and that physical cosmology as it arose in the twentieth century continues to give insights and pose questions to theology about the nature of creation, new creation, and what it means to be human. The context of this relationship has not only been the academic arena but rather many of the interactions have been developed the media and popular science. The article therefore takes an historical approach to illustrate specific issues and key thinkers, to give greater texture to how theology and cosmology have informed and continue to inform each other.

The Robertson–Walker minimum length (RWML) theory considers stochastically perturbed spacetime to describe an expanding universe governed by geometry and diffusion. We explore the possibility of static, torsionless universe eras with conserved energy density. We find that the RWML theory provides asymptotically static equations of state under positive curvature both far in the past and far into the future, with a Big Bang singularity in between.

The idea of cosmos unity is not recent. It has been proposed from various viewpoints throughout human history as the locus of life. To begin with, the African worldview of Ubuntu tells the story of life from the experience of a cosmic perspective that upholds the primacy of the community and asserts that a truly fulfilling and complete life is attainable only by those who belong to the cosmic whole. There is no 'I' without 'we'; "Because we are, I am". And, unless the "I" belongs to "we", there is no life, biological or ancestral, after death. On its part, Paul's cosmology, generally understood as proposing a two/three-tiered cosmos, has a different viewpoint when seen from a closer look. Even if he would have agreed with his religious ancestors that sin had divided reality and that diastema is to blame for the cosmos fragmentation, Paul still recounts the story of a cosmic whole. His theology of reconciliation makes that unity more evident when he suggests that through Christ, the cosmos is reconciled, and life is restored. To belong to the cosmic whole is to be reconciled with God and have eternal life. From a third perspective, today's new cosmological investigations have uncovered the unfolding story of the grand unity and complexity of the universe, which is the only locus of life known to humanity. In this universe of connectivity and entanglement, one can scientifically appreciate the absence of fragments and observe the complexified unity of all things indispensable for living. These three stories reveal that togetherness and the experience of the cosmic whole are fundamental for life and the taste of eternal life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neste artigo, examinamos a Inflação Cósmica, investigando sua origem histórica, implicações e contribuições para a compreensão do Universo primordial. Inicialmente, estabelecemos um contexto ao abordar a Relatividade Geral e os trabalhos pioneiros de cientistas como Friedmann, Lemaître e Hubble. Em seguida, identificamos os desafios inerentes ao modelo do Big Bang que motivaram Alan Guth a propor o mecanismo inflacionária. Posteriormente, delineamos os princípios fundamentais por trás da inflação, destacando as condições necessárias para que um modelo de inflação seja considerado viável na física e em seguida, mostramos como o mecanismo inflacionário resolve o problema de planura e de horizonte. Finalizamos a análise discutindo como observações contemporâneas corroboram com a inflação cósmica, especialmente no que concerne à explicação da origem das flutuações cósmicas e à formação das estruturas de larga escala no Universo.

We present a unified vision of human knowledge, the external world and ourselves in the frame of an overall unity of Everything. Two main sources of knowledge are considered to this goal: an admittedly reductionist version of Modern Science and a few key elements of Oriental Philosophy. Our view is based on an analogy between the fundamental unity of Vedic ontology and the Grand Unification scheme of Particle Physics traced along the evolution of the Universe. Our key statement is that these two sources of knowledge describe the same ontological story of separation, from an original One down to the multiplicity of the phenomenological world. We further substantiate this vision by drawing an analogy between the Residue of the Vedic sacrifice and the post-Big-Bang cosmological Matter-Antimatter Asymmetry. We also discuss a Big-Bang analogy between the postulated field of Inflationary Cosmology (the Inflaton) and the Vedic dissolution-decomposition of the cosmic progenitor Prajapati – whose body, according to Brahmanas texts, provides the material substrate of which the Universe is built.

The idea of “creatio ex nihilo” entered the arena of natural science with the advent of modern cosmology in the mid-twentieth century. This idea, that is, the creation of the universe out of nothing, seems to be a consequence of the widely accepted Big Bang Theory which implies the temporal finitude of the world. In order to avoid the theological and metaphysical implications of such an idea, some scenarios and scientific models have been proposed. According to one of the scenarios, the creation ex nihilo of the world is a causal physical phenomenon, and, hence, can be explained scientifically by appealing to the laws of nature.In this essay, I aim to discuss and criticize this idea.To fulfill this aim, in the introduction some achievements of modern cosmology will be very briefly introduced. In the next three sections, the notions of existence and nothingness, creation,scientific explanation, and singularity will be explored.It will be shown that what philosophers mean by these notions isradically different fromthe naïve ideas of some scientists. Hence, applying these notions to physical models of the origin of the universe is completely misleading.This work concludes that no scientific explanation appealing to the laws of nature can possibly explainthe creation of the universe out of nothing.

In this contribution, we sketch a branch‐cut quantum formulation of the Wheeler‐DeWitt equation analytically continued to the complex plane. As a starting point, we base our approach on the Hořava‐Lifshitz formulation of gravity, which employs higher spatial‐derivative terms of the spacetime curvature for renormalization reasons. Following standard procedures, the quantization of the Lagrangian density is achieved by raising the Hamiltonian, the dynamical variable ln−1[β(t)]$$ {\ln}^{-1}\left[\beta (t)\right] $$, which represents the the branch‐cut complex scale factor, and the conjugate momentum pln to the category of operators. We arrive at a Schrödinger‐type equation with a non‐linear potential. Solutions are then obtained and discussed for different potential parameterizations. The results reinforce the conception of a quantum leap between the contraction and expansion phases of the branch‐cut universe, in good agreement with the Bekenstein criterion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The idea of "creatio ex nihilo" entered the arena of natural science with the advent of modern cosmology in the mid-twentieth century. This idea, that is, the creation of the universe out of nothing, seems to be a consequence of the widely accepted Big Bang Theory which implies the temporal finitude of the world. In order to avoid the theological and metaphysical implications of such an idea, some scenarios and scientific models have been proposed. According to one of the scenarios, the creation ex nihilo of the world is a causal physical phenomenon, and, hence, can be explained scientifically by appealing to the laws of nature. In this essay, I aim to discuss and criticize this idea. To fulfill this aim, in the introduction some achievements of modern cosmology will be very briefly introduced. In the next three sections, the notions of existence and nothingness, creation, scientific explanation, and singularity will be explored. It will be shown that what philosophers mean by these notions isradically different fromthe naïve ideas of some scientists. Hence, applying these notions to physical models of the origin of the universe is completely misleading. This work concludes that no scientific explanation appealing to the laws of nature can possibly explainthe creation of the universe out of nothing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author William Stukeley of Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton's Life published in 1752 wrote: "... After dinner, the weather being warm, we went into the garden and drank thea, under the shade of some apple trees.he told me, he was just in the same situation, as when formerly, the notion of gravitation came into his mind. It was occasion'd by the fall of an apple, as he sat in contemplative mood. Why should that apple always descend perpendicularly to the ground, thought he to himself.." Newton seeing this apple fall formulated gravity and went on to show that the movement of the moon and planets and other heavenly bodies is due to the same force. What if Newton had instead seen Galaxies moving due to an expanding universe, would he have then wondered if the apple falling, and all movement is due to an expanding universe? This short essay introduces a simple thought experiment to analyze this possibility. It concludes that if such is the case the passage of time and the expansion of the universe is the one and the same. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Apresentamos neste artigo a transcrição francesa e a tradução para o português da recémdescoberta entrevista de Georges Lemaître sobre a Teoria do Big Bang, efetuada pela emissora belga Vlaamse Radio-en Televisieomroeporganisatie (VRT), em 1964 e que, desde então, considerava-se como desaparecida. Para uma melhor contextualização, apresentamos também uma visão panorâmica sobre a Teoria do Big Bang, as contribuições e motivações de Lemaître, bem como outros vários aspectos históricos, talvez não tão bem conhecidos do público menos especializado.

The idea of cosmos unity is not recent. It has been proposed from various viewpoints throughout human history as the locus of life. To begin with, the African worldview of Ubuntu tells the story of life from the experience of a cosmic perspective that upholds the primacy of the community and asserts that a truly fulfilling and complete life is attainable only by those who belong to the cosmic whole. There is no ‘I’ without ‘we’; “Because we are, I am”. And, unless the “I” belongs to “we”, there is no life, biological or ancestral, after death. On its part, Paul’s cosmology, generally understood as proposing a two/three-tiered cosmos, has a different viewpoint when seen from a closer look. Even if he would have agreed with his religious ancestors that sin had divided reality and that diastema is to blame for the cosmos fragmentation, Paul still recounts the story of a cosmic whole. His theology of reconciliation makes that unity more evident when he suggests that through Christ, the cosmos is reconciled, and life is restored. To belong to the cosmic whole is to be reconciled with God and have eternal life. From a third perspective, today’s new cosmological investigations have uncovered the unfolding story of the grand unity and complexity of the universe, which is the only locus of life known to humanity. In this universe of connectivity and entanglement, one can scientifically appreciate the absence of fragments and observe the complexified unity of all things indispensable for living. These three stories reveal that togetherness and the experience of the cosmic whole are fundamental for life and the taste of eternal life.

It is advisable to avoid and, even better, demystify such grandiose terms as "infinity" or "singularity" in the description of the cosmos. Its proliferation does not positively contribute to the understanding of key concepts that are essential for an updated account of its origin and evolutionary history. It will be here argued that, as a matter of fact, there are no infinities in physics, in the real world: all that appears, in any given formulation of nature by means of mathematical equations, actually arises from extrapolations, which are made beyond the bounds of validity of the equations themselves. Such a crucial point is rather well known, but too often forgotten, and is discussed in this paper with several examples; namely, the famous Big Bang singularity and others, which appeared before in classical mechanics and electrodynamics, and notably in the quantization of field theories. A brief description of the Universe's history and evolution follows. Special emphasis is put on what is presently known, from detailed observations of the cosmos and, complementarily, from advanced experiments of very high-energy physics. To conclude, a future perspective on how this knowledge might soon improve is given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a similar way to the case of Education in Chemistry, where it is implicitly assumed that the elements of the Periodic Table exist with their "natural" abundances without their origin and evolution being ever discussed, the case of the origin of protons and neutrons that constitute the matter that we are made of is generally neglected. Discussions of the Big Bang in the classroom do not address or emphasize into one of the main foundations of this model: the early Universe was quite different from the current one, probably symmetrical in matter and antimatter, and there was a time when this changed irreversibly to produce, after billions of years, the Universe we observe today. We present in this work a pedagogical discussion of the complex problem of the origin of matter in the Universe, with emphasis on the observed facts and on the qualitative conditions that the scenarios need to explain them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper collates research on the ideas about the origin of the universe and the planet Earth that pupils from Years 5 to 8 of primary school in Belgrade have. Such knowledge should open space for us to further analyse the attitude of young people towards science and the world it describes. With them, it is possible to gain a better insight into the basic ideas about reality that people build and adopt in general. The starting hypothesis is that pupils themselves create hybrid concepts that combine knowledge from classes, ideas from popular culture, and modern scientific theories that are available to them through various media. The cosmological knowledge offered to pupils in geography classes will be analysed, along with the popular discourse accessible to young people. Finally, a preliminary ethnographic study of pupils’ cosmogonic ideas conducted on a pilot sample will be presented. The aim of the research is to understand the pupils’ fundamental knowledge about reality, about the formation of a cognitive framework in which pupils inscribe their own ideas about the place of the Earth and life in space.

De forma similar ao caso da Educação em Química, onde é implícitamente suposto que os elementos da Tabela Periódica existem com suas abundâncias “naturais”, sem que sua origem e evolução sejam discutidas jamais, o caso da origem dos prótons e nêutrons que constituem a matéria que nos rodeiae constitui é geralmente negligenciado. As discussões do Big Bang na sala de aula não reparam nem aprofundam um dos principais alicereces daquele modelo: o Universo primitivo era bem diferente do atual, provavelmente simétrico em matéria e antimatéria, e houve uma época onde isto mudou irreversivelmente para produzir, depois de bilhões de anos, o Universo “frio” que hoje observamos. Apresentamos neste trabalho uma discussão pedagógica do complexo problema da origem da matéria no Universo, com ênfase nos fatos observados e nas condições qualitativas que os cenários precisam para explicá-los.

A cyclic cosmological theory called “Consciousness Endomitosis Theory” (CET) is proposed. Whatever is taken as being real, any particle, any structure in the universe, any object, or any type of interaction, all of them are derivative from consciousness, and are described as modulations of consciousness. In CET, consciousness is assumed to be the field from which all other fields described by general relativity and quantum mechanics emerge and into which all of them coalesce. Other cosmological cyclic models can be partly embedded within CET or can be shown to be compatible with it, including some apparently distant models like Steinhardt and Turok’s two-brane cyclic model, as well as other models much closer to CET principles, like Amoroso’s Noetic Field Theory (2000, 2003, 2006) and Di Biase’s Quantum Holographic Informational Model (2019). In CET, consciousness is metaphorically compared to a spherical cell in which an iterative endomitotic process takes place, a process that flows into the “Big Bang.” Once the evolution of visible universe is completed, “Big Crunch” triggers endomitosis reversal. Time, space, energy, mass and the four fundamental interactions are reinterpreted in the light of this cosmic dynamics of consciousness.

The evidence for a Big Bang origin of the universe is truly compelling, though its cause remains a complete mystery. As the cosmic spacetime is revealed to us with ever‐improving detail, however, we are beginning to refine the range of its possible initial conditions—at least within the framework of current physical theories. The universe, it seems, is spatially flat, and here we discuss in clear, straightforward terms why this trait implies a cosmos with zero kinetic plus gravitational energy, though apparently not zero total energy. Such an outcome has far reaching consequences because of the possibility that the universe may have begun its existence as a quantum fluctuation. Was this from "nothing," or perhaps a preexisting vacuum? A nonzero total energy would seemingly preclude the former scenario, but not necessarily the latter, though this would then raise the question of how a fluctuation with nonzero energy could have lived long enough, or classicalized, for us to see it 13.5 billion years later. The high‐precision measurement of the universe's spatial curvature may thus constitute the first tangible piece of evidence impacting a possible quantum beginning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the mathematical physics literature, there are heuristic arguments, going back three decades, suggesting that for an open set of initially smooth solutions to the Einstein-vacuum equations in high dimensions, stable, approximately monotonic curvature singularities can dynamically form along a spacelike hypersurface. In this article, we study the Cauchy problem and give a rigorous proof of this phenomenon in sufficiently high dimensions, thereby providing the first constructive proof of stable curvature-blowup (without symmetry assumptions) along a spacelike hypersurface as an effect of pure gravity. Our proof applies to an open subset of regular initial data satisfying the assumptions of Hawking's celebrated "singularity" theorem, which shows that the solution is geodesically incomplete but does not reveal the nature of the incompleteness. Specifically, our main result is a proof of the dynamic stability of the Kasner curvature singularity for a subset of Kasner solutions whose metrics exhibit only moderately (as opposed to severely) spatially anisotropic behavior. Of independent interest is our method of proof, which is more robust than earlier approaches in that (i) it does not rely on approximate monotonicity identities and (ii) it accommodates the possibility that the solution develops very singular high-order spatial derivatives, whose blowup-rates are allowed to be, within the scope of our bootstrap argument, much worse than those of the base-level quantities driving the fundamental blowup. For these reasons, our approach could be used to obtain similar blowup-results for various Einstein-matter systems in any number of spatial dimensions for solutions corresponding to an open set of moderately spatially anisotropic initial data, thus going beyond the nearly spatially isotropic regime treated in earlier works. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our universe was born about 13.8 billion years ago from an extremely hot and dense singular point, in a process known as the Big Bang. The hot and dense matter which dominated the system within a few microseconds of its birth was in the form of a soup of elementary quarks and gluons, known as the quark-gluon plasma (QGP). Signatures compatible with the formation of QGP matter have experimentally been observed in heavy-ion (such as Au or Pb) collisions at ultra-relativistic energies. Recently, experimental data of proton-proton (pp) collisions at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) have also shown signals resembling those of QGP formation, which made these studies stimulating as to how the collision of small systems features in producing the early universe signals. In this article, we discuss some of the compelling experimental results and give an account of the present understanding. We review the pp physics programme at the LHC and discuss future prospects in the context of exploring the nature of primordial matter in the early universe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To gain a full understanding of the relationship between climate change and physiology we must transcend the superficial Anthropic Principle, that we are ‘in’ this Universe, and enter the world of ‘Goldilocks’ who was seeking the ‘just right’ condition in the home of the three bears. What she was actually looking for was homeostasis, that balance that epitomizes all of Cosmology. It is the ‘equals’ sign in all balanced equations, whether it's physics, chemistry or biology. It represents the resolution of the Big Bang, which disrupted the Singularity thought to have pre-existed it, giving rise to asymmetries. We emulate that effort through Symbiogenesis - the assimilation of factors in the environment that have posed existential threats - as the means of evolution in response to climate change. Such a ‘true’ narrative is tantamount to gaining control of our runaway climate.

It is advisable to avoid and, even better, demystify such grandiose terms as “infinity” or “singularity” in the description of the cosmos. Its proliferation does not positively contribute to the understanding of key concepts that are essential for an updated account of its origin and evolutionary history. It will be here argued that, as a matter of fact, there are no infinities in physics, in the real world: all that appears, in any given formulation of nature by means of mathematical equations, actually arises from extrapolations, which are made beyond the bounds of validity of the equations themselves. Such a crucial point is rather well known, but too often forgotten, and is discussed in this paper with several examples; namely, the famous Big Bang singularity and others, which appeared before in classical mechanics and electrodynamics, and notably in the quantization of field theories. A brief description of the Universe’s history and evolution follows. Special emphasis is put on what is presently known, from detailed observations of the cosmos and, complementarily, from advanced experiments of very high-energy physics. To conclude, a future perspective on how this knowledge might soon improve is given.

After a few microseconds of the creation of our Universe through the Big Bang, the primordial matter was believed to be a soup of the fundamental constituents of matter – quarks and gluons. This is expected to be created in the laboratory by colliding heavy nuclei at ultra-relativistic speeds. A plasma of quarks and gluons, called quark–gluon plasma (QGP) can be created at the energy and luminosity frontiers in the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, at Brookhaven National Laboratory, New York, USA, and the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, Geneva, Switzerland. Heavy quarks, namely the charm and bottom quarks, are considered as novel probes to characterize QGP, and hence the produced quantum chromodynamics matter. Heavy quark transport coefficients play a significant role in understanding the properties of QGP. Experimental measurements of nuclear suppression factor and elliptic flow can constrain the heavy quark transport coefficients, which are key ingredients for phenomenological studies, and they help to disentangle different energy loss mechanisms. We give a general perspective of the heavy quark drag and diffusion coefficients in QGP and discuss their potentials as probes to disentangle different hadronization mechanisms, as well as to probe the initial electromagnetic fields produced in non-central heavy-ion collisions. Experimental perspectives on future measurements are discussed with special emphasis on heavy flavours as the next-generation probes in view of new technological developments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A cyclic cosmological theory called “Consciousness Endomitosis Theory” (CET) is proposed. Whatever is taken as being real, any particle, any structure in the universe, any object, or any type of interaction, all of them are derivative from consciousness, and are described as modulations of consciousness. In CET, consciousness is assumed to be the field from which all other fields described by general relativity and quantum mechanics emerge and into which all of them coalesce. Other cosmological cyclic models can be partly embedded within CET or can be shown to be compatible with it, including some apparently distant models like Steinhardt and Turok’s two-brane cyclic model, as well as other models much closer to CET principles, like Amoroso’s Noetic Field Theory (2000, 2003, 2006) and Di Biase’s Quantum Holographic Informational Model (2019). In CET, consciousness is metaphorically compared to a spherical cell in which an iterative endomitotic process takes place, a process that flows into the “Big Bang.” Once the evolution of visible universe is completed, “Big Crunch” triggers endomitosis reversal. Time, space, energy, mass and the four fundamental interactions are reinterpreted in the light of this cosmic dynamics of consciousness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we follow a previously developed theoretical approach, based on the tools of the singular semi‐Riemannian geometry, to push the limits of time beyond the primordial spacetime singularity. By complexifying the Friedmann–Lemaître–Robertson–Walker (FLRW) metric and Friedmann's equations, we model a branch cut universe, in which the cosmic FLRW metric scale factor is analytically continued to the complex plane, and becomes equivalent from a conceptual point of view of describing a hypothetical general metric of maximally symmetric and homogeneous superposed multiple universes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this contribution, we identify two scenarios for the evolutionary branch cut universe. In the first scenario, the universe evolves continuously from the negative complex cosmological time sector, prior to a primordial singularity, to the positive one, circumventing continuously a branch cut, and no primordial singularity occurs in the imaginary sector, only branch points. In the second scenario, the branch cut and branch point disappear after the realization of the imaginary component of the complex time by means of a Wick rotation, which is replaced by the thermal time. In the second scenario, the universe has its origin in the Big Bang, but the model contemplates simultaneously a mirrored parallel evolutionary universe going backwards in the cosmological thermal time negative sector. A quantum formulation based on the Wheeler–DeWitt equation is sketched and preliminary conclusions are drawn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we discuss the hot topic of Big History, doing a brief description of the evolution: from the cosmic evolution to the biological evolution. Here we present an abridgement of cosmic evolution and biological evolution, and the scientific description and philosophical reflection of different theories attempting to explain them, highlighting the emerging and complex characters, which we believe that are structural effects of the evolutionary process. We called this global evolution cosmo-bio-anthropological evolution. Also, it is to be noted the exposition we did on recent scientific discoveries that experimentally corroborate the Big Bang Theory, and so, they assert the temporal beginning of the universe.

The idea that our Universe emerged as a result of the extraordinary power of the Big Bang from singularity (i.e., a state of an infinitely small quantity and infinitely high concentration of matter) is still very popular today. It was one of the main postulates of the Big Bang theory that completely formed in the 1960s–1970s. However, at present this idea as well as the Big Bang theory is outdated, although it is still shared by many scientists. Being widespread since the end of the 1970s the Inflation theory appears more modern. The main reason for the emergence of the Inflation theory was that the Big Bang theory could not satisfactorily explain a number of the contemporary parameters of the Universe. The Inflation theory makes still widespread views of the Big Bang theory archaic, in particular as regards the following points: 1) the history of the Universe started with the Big Bang; 2) it started with the singularity. According to the Inflation theory, the Big Bang was not the beginning and the moment of the origin of the Universe, but it was preceded by at least two epochs: inflation and post-inflationary heating. That is, the Big Bang or precisely the hot Big Bang is just a phase transition from the state of cold inflation to the hot phase. Since the Inflation theory does not consider the Big Bang as the initial phase there emerges an intricate problem of the role of the Big Bang in the process of the formation the Universe as a whole. The paper considers the confusion with the Big Bang notion, a number and sequence of ‘bangs’ and why the theory can dispense easily without the notion the Big Bang. We will also discuss some advantages and disadvantages of the Inflation theory.

Einstein equations give minimum and maximum limits of cosmic scale factor by considering pressure. In our suggested model the contraction before expansion of cosmos is like the birth of a star. As in nuclear fusion stage, the temperature and pressure of the star depends on its mass, in the order of magnitude of universe mass fusion after gravitational contraction brings about explosion. This does not require to accept the big bang singularity. Explosions have thrown external layers and formed parts of the expanding cosmos in several stages. We dealt with the problem of horizon by considering the idea of step- by step explosions. In observable part of the universe high percentage of dark energy and dark matter confirms that these are the remains of other parts of the cosmos. Neutrinos being highly energetic and without any interaction are the most suitable candidates for dark energy and massive black holes being found at the central part of galaxies and in stellar clusters are the most suitable candidates for dark matter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The famous quote of Antoine Laurent de Lavoisier (18th century) "Nothing is lost, nothing is created: everything is transformed" illustrates a principle that has marked minds throughout modern history. It deals with the principle of energy conservation. In our minds, energy is conserved in our world (in our dimensions). If part of the energy drifts out of our dimensions, this will contradict the statement "Nothing is lost." If some energy penetrates our dimensions, this will contradict the statement "Nothing is created." Everything is transformed within our dimensions. This article discusses the latest attempts through cosmic theories, still unverified, that have tried to explain the start and development of the universe even at the cost of concepts and principles unanimously agreed to date by the scientific community through the history, such as the principle of conservation of energy. This article raises some questions that we scientists must answer before we move forward. We must from time to time take a step back and have a critical look at our scientific progress before we branch off into a web of various theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our mind seems to be formatted to imagine a "motionless" material particle (or more accurately a region of spacetime at rest relative to that material particle) fixed in space as an absolute reference and to consider the existence of space and time as independent universal entities, as we perceive when we measure them with a ruler and a clock, respectively. Instead, let us first hypothesize that singularities are the absolute reference for the universe, that the speed of light in vacuum (c = 299 792 458 m/s) is universal and absolute, and that deceleration/acceleration is the "driving force" that defines spacetime. Frames of reference anchored on material particles/objects may be grouped as having zero acceleration (inertial frames), nonzero, constant acceleration (pseudoinertial frames) or nonzero, variable acceleration (noninertial proper frames), so that a noninertial proper frame may be considered as composed of an infinite number of pseudoinertial frames. The universality of c is ensured by its absolute constancy, when both observer and moving beam of photons are in frames of reference differing neither in speed nor in acceleration, as is the case within inertial or pseudoinertial frames, respectively. However, its value (as that of any other speed) is measured as different when the observer is at an inertial or pseudoinertial frame and the beam of photons is moving in another, thus differing in Lorentz factor (c) or acceleration, respectively. Speed, velocity, and acceleration (including the effect of gravity on a material particle/object) are all defined in terms of space and time. However, space and time do not exist as independent universal entities, as they are integral components of one and the same inextricable physical entity, spacetime. Assuming spacetime forms a continuum, it is expected that anything affecting one will affect the other. This has been widely recognized for gravity, but not for speed--something which becomes clearer if we assume that it should in fact be acceleration/deceleration that moves a material particle from one frame of reference into another. Several conditions that are grouped under gravity-dependent and non-gravity-dependent act individually or in combination to submit a matter particle to acceleration. Therefore, when perceived from the Earth (or any other place at v < 299 792 458 m/s), any departure from c caused by deceleration should expand space and contract time. Any further deceleration or subsequent acceleration (for as long as v< c) will alter spacetime. Hence, in astrophysics, deceleration rather than acceleration should be the main driving or direct physical quantity. It is proposed that any deceleration/acceleration distorts spacetime. A method to combine the effects of several conditions that define the acceleration status of a material particle in spacetime is proposed. The higher v/c and/or gravity-dependent acceleration, the greater time dilation and space contraction will be. At the singularity, time dilation and space contraction will be maxima. The actual "position" of a material particle in spacetime may therefore be defined by the sum of all changes it suffered in deceleration/acceleration (due to changes in gravity-dependent and non-gravity-dependent accelerations) since the singularity. The impossibility of exceeding the speed of light in vacuum is discussed and tentatively demonstrated. In line with the present hypothesis, both time and space are relative, but only partially due to the limits imposed by c, opening the possibility for the concept of spacetime partial relativity. According to our proposal, spacetime is defined by a special form of deceleration, which we have termed relativistic or Lorentz deceleration: it is a decelerationdependent elastic property of any matter particle moving at v < c. It expands/contracts precisely because of the effect of deceleration/acceleration on matter particles moving at v < c. According to these views, defining a singularity should depend on the perspective. When perceived from the Earth or any other place at v < c, a singularity is a spaceless point of infinite density, associated with the speed of light and where a second lasts forever. However, when "perceived" from within a singularity, space is there and time flows. Based on this work, a singularity may be defined in higher detail as the embryonic state of the universe (or a part of it), associated with two universal absolute constants: the speed of photons (c = 299 792 458 m/s) and the quantity of spacetime. It also corresponds to a standard spacetime condition, in which time is dilated and space contracted to maximum values. The Big Bang is interpreted not as an explosion or bang, but rather as an infinitesimal deceleration from the singularity, thus triggering the initial exponential space expansion and time contraction and leading to matter formation. Neither space nor time are created or destroyed--They are always there since the singularity but vary widely in contraction/expansion magnitude with each precise spacetime condition, as deceleration-dependent fluctuations take place in spacetime. Gravity, an inherent property of matter, and entropy are key players in the subsequent evolution of the universe. Uncountable successive and cumulative changes in deceleration suffered by material particles determine the precise conditions they occupy at each moment in spacetime, thus allowing the build-up of a gigantic and highly dynamic noninertial frame of reference, i.e., our universe. Individual observers at single points of the universe should all see light photons moving in vacuum at 299 792 458 m/s (or any material particle/object moving at v < 299 792 458 m/s) and perceive space and time identically, each within their own spacetime condition. Differences arise only when one observer "looks" at other observers in distinct spacetime conditions. An attempt is made to interpret spacetime and light when we "look" at frames of reference distinct from our own, since this is precisely what we "see" when we observe the universe from the Earth. Cosmological models are typically based on several assumptions. The hypothesis formulated in the present article is no different, with a singularity as its major reference. We conceptualize on a cosmological model that challenges some currently accepted views of the universe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In spite of successful tests, the standard cosmological model, the Λ CDM model, possesses the most problematic concept: the initial singularity, also known as the big bang. In this paper—by adopting the Kantian difference between to think of an object and to cognize an object—it is proposed a degree of scientificity using fuzzy sets. Thus, the notion of initial singularity will not be conceived of as a scientific issue because it does not belong to the fuzzy set of what is known. Indeed, the problematic concept of singularity is some sort of what Kant called the noumenon, but science, on the other hand, is constructed in the phenomenon. By applying the fuzzy degree of scientificity in cosmological models, one concludes that cosmologies with a contraction phase before the current expansion phase are potentially more scientific than the standard model. At the end of this article, it is shown that Kant's first antinomy of pure reason indicates a limit to our cosmological models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Time is one of the undisputed foundations of our life in the real world. Here it is argued that inside small isolated quantum systems, time does not pass as we are used to, and it is primarily in this sense that quantum objects enjoy only limited reality. Quantum systems, which we know, are embedded in the everyday classical world. Their preparation as well as their measurement-phases leave durable records and traces in the entropy of the environment. The Landauer Principle then gives a quantitative threshold for irreversibility. With double slit experiments and tunneling as paradigmatic examples, it is proposed that a label of timelessness offers clues for rendering a Copenhagen-type interpretation of quantum physics more “realistic” and acceptable by providing a coarse but viable link from the fundamental quantum realm to the classical world which humans directly experience.

Margaret Thatcher’s economic policy from 1979 to 1990 was meant to break away from the economic practices of successive post-war Keynesian governments. Fighting inflation was its first objective and reducing the government’s presence in the economy to improve its supply-side, and growth in particular, its second objective. As a result, markets were deregulated and state-owned industries were privatized. This article deals with the deregulation of financial markets whose contribution in terms of wealth, job creation and exports had been rising since the beginning of the 1970s. The strengths and weaknesses of the City of London are analysed in a first part and the deregulation of financial markets in a second part. The third section explains why the government introduced regulation into areas which had never been subject to statutory regulation, and why it broadened the scope of financial regulation and strengthened banking supervision.

Cosmology renewed its status as a science in 1917 and was quickly confronted with questions about the origins, or at least the beginning, of its object. Its progress until now has been affected by a more or less latent conflict with other discourses on the Everything: this has been alternately a help or an obstacle. Its present standard model seems capable of describing almost everything about the observable universe’s history. If it must dig deeper and deeper into this almost, it ought to specify that it ventures into speculation.

The predictions of General Relativity suggest a universe in which, as we follow time backward, the hotter and the more dense it was, and the more rapidly it was expanding and that, around 13.7 billion years ago, at the extreme gravitational regime of its evolutionary process, the density, temperature, and expansion rate of the universe would start off as infinite. The General Relativity prediction of a singularity in the early universe would impose a limitation to our understanding of the cosmos and gravity, implying loss of logic and of formal consistency and predictability, making it impossible to impose initial conditions. These extreme conditions of the initial state of the universe are very far from our experimental possibilities, and presently, theoretical models allow only speculations about the avoidance of physical singularities or about the physical conditions that circumvented this drastic consequence of General Relativity. Speculations aside, in this study, we follow an analytical line in which we apply the tools of singular semi‐Riemannian geometry to push the limits of General Relativity beyond the Big Bang singularity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Doxa / Doksa is the property of I. I. Mechnikov Odessa National University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)