by Theodore R Frimet
A photon, neutrino and graviton walk into a bar…
A photon, neutrino, and a graviton walk into a bar. Bartender asks, what’s with the graviton? The photon says, “let me explain”. The neutrino interrupts, and says, “Big Bang”.
The above joke has sufficient cognitive dissonance to explain all that follows. I am not so much inclined to produce new theory or hypothesis as I am set to undo some or all of what has been taught, recently, as cosmological theory. Although not a main philosophic tenet of John Locke, the expenditure of millions of dollars and commitment of close to a thousand educated minds in the pursuit of dark energy, and dark matter, may make an insensible impression upon those that simply do not know better. As a foundation of new observations will inevitably be laid down for future generations, now is time to express some thought on the matter. I think I know what dark energy is. Or at the least, you and I may have a meeting of the minds, in the few paragraphs that follow, and elucidate a new path.
So that we all know where the basis of my thought comes from, I’d like to share some news that might be disturbing to some readers. Having been fortunate enough to be introduced to the writings of Brian Greene, by a current AAAP member (thank you, and the wife for clearing out the bookshelf !) I find that Mr. Greene’s second book, “The Fabric of the Cosmos”, 2004 published by Random House, to be a much better read than, “The Elegant Universe”, 1999, published by W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. More to the point, I am only up to page 156 of the latter, so any hidden references to superstrings or hidden dimensions not so noted, are more likely rooted in the former. Not shocked ? It isn’t the page count that I thought would muster up your gall, however, the thought that the second was better than the first might get your grog into gear.
Ah, yes. The big bang. Or as one of our favorite cable TV shows might indicate, that there was not much of a bang. Unless you factor in the reading of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and the derived plotting of baryonic acoustic oscillations. I swear to you, that during our last AAAP lecture on dark matter, dark energy, I truly believe that there is a missing amplitude curve to the BAO plot. Another hand-clap, if you must. But then, I digress, or rather regress into more of religious belief system, rather than one of science. On the face of it, it doesn’t appear rational, does it? However then, even Locke started his philosophical trendiness by first absorbing into his reality, that which was canonized. So, permit me the rather obvious treat of thinking as a member of the mid 1600’s and creating an artifact of illusion. I think modern science now calls this a hypothesis. Yes. The missing hand clap of genesis.
I was awed by Greene’s notion of less than 20 pounds of stuff being sufficiently expanded to fill the contents of our universe. I had already known and understood what it meant for an outer expanding bubble to, hold in place, and at the same time, move apart, its constituents on its surface. And much of what was written, I found totally enjoyable. But the sense of it, that so little genesis was needed to fill the void, was exciting to read and appreciate. I must render to you an apology, now and then. I am uncertain as to where, and when I read this in his book. But it does, inevitably come to mind, that the author of The Fabric of the Cosmos, is where the citation lay, in print, at the least. And it sparked an idea.
I shared this thought with our last AAAP speaker, and we all got a chuckle out of what could be the next venue for a movie. So, what follows is borrowed, from what I’ve read, and begged, from my peers, so that we might accomplish two things. The first being a source of entertainment. This being so, because so much of what follows that passes as cosmology is conjecture, and adding my thoughts, most certainly creates more of a movie event, than say, “real science”. And the second being, that as I will probably never win a big lottery, that the presentation of some liberal thought, could possibly link up, now or in the future, with solid observational evidence. Some look for Big Foot; I’d say I am looking for a cosmic string left over from before nucleosynthesis. Because if that’s possible, heck – what follows could be more than just feasible.
Accepted into the nomenclature of the big bang, is the hot and dense nature of our beginnings. And that in the absence of early matter coalescing into nuclei, and hydrogen, how even light could not escape the density of such extremes. Ah, but the wild card of neutrinos calls and beckons me. Like the musings of Khan, in a Star Trek episode, where he paraphrases Melville’s Moby Dick, “He tasks me. He tasks me and I shall have him!” If you have never read Melville, I encourage you to do so. It took me quite a while, and I must apologize to Melville, as I don’t remember quoting him as much as I recall a quote or few from the screen writers of our beloved Star Trek. On to neutrinos…
Neutrinos come forth, spewing into the void of the early universe, and not being massless, as they approach the speed of light, continue to increase in mass. Or if you prefer, they increase in energy – so that their velocity remains bound to the newest principle born of our cosmos, the limiting speed of light. And to make a poor reference to Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity, a shift into motion slows down the clock of the matter at hand. By the time nucleosynthesis takes place, in Planck time, the clocks of the inner bang are not the same of the clocks of our early neutrinos. Let’s take a pause, here. Because some of you dear readers are asking the question, is our little fermion friend, shifting between tau, muon, and electron, in space-time, or are you calling an early bluff to my prose?
We have been told that in the birth of the bang, there were the consequences of quantum jitters that formed the basis of baryonic distribution in our developing universe. Here is where I go off the proverbial deep edge. Take a breath, as we are diving into the shallow end of the pool. This is not for the feint of hear. Here it is: I disagree. My hypothesis is that the time shifting neutrinos are literally slammed into by a raging photonic pressure wave. It is the very light of creation that was held in place, inescapably by the massive heat. And released, in outward expansion, at light speed, only when the first matter was formed. The dawn of light clock runs faster than the aforementioned neutrinos and hence, my photonic pressure wave crashes into a mass filled universe. Take a second breath. We are going into the deep end, now, my friends…reflections.
Not unlike seeing for yourself on a science show, the effects of a massive laser on a point carbon source and the observational results in a dynamic pressure wave; it doesn’t boggle the mind, in the least to see the way of wave interference, and reflection. And I postulate that our photonic pressure wave, doesn’t skip like a stone on the surface of neutrinos. They combine wave events. Something very unlikely, I’d admit. But this is where all the fun is at. Because just as 20 or so pounds of mass expands into something that is too great to imagine, we may have, at its crux, the energy relevant to what is needed, by cubic meter in the void, to accelerate the expansion of the universe. Now onto the reflection, and why jitters weren’t needed in early creation, until now…
Most of us have read, or have heard of the holographic theory. What follows isn’t that theory, however is inspired by it. A third breath, as we get pulled out of the water. Someone get ready with to do some CPR…
Each cosmic collision results in a point oscillation in reverse flight into an ever expanding cone to the core of the bang. The terminus of the cone bears down on our early matter synthesis with quantum jitters that were the result of neutrino transformations, and the varying degrees of space time distortion experienced by our earliest travelers reflecting back from the void. Neutrinos created the map of baryonic distribution. We read that as long as a science cannot probe to the finest of the imperfections of space time, some hypotheses are safe. For the moment at least. And in the colloquial nomenclature of football, I am doing a “hail Mary” pass, and will wait out until we can map the early universe with neutrino emissions, as has been done, for the cosmic background radiation.
I pray that it isn’t too narcissistic of me to suggest, that I have just broom swept out the proverbial pigeon droppings, as did two pioneers from Bell Labs…not too long ago, leading to the discovery of the CMB. My near infrared telescope will be ready by February, 2017. I have already anticipated a failure. Despite the real limitations of science, and budget, I haven’t ruled out the dream of a possibility of finding a cosmic string in the night sky. Right now, my tabula rasa (blank slate) is filled and I’ve got much to sleep on. Locke wouldn’t be proud. No doubt, he’d be confused. And we didn’t even get to talk about the graviton as a messenger particle. Perhaps, next time, when the bartender asks his ever recurring question, the graviton, and not the photon or neutrino, will speak for the cosmos.
Amateur Astronomers Association of Princeton 