TODAY -

The creation of the universe, matter & subatomic particles

Dr Irengbam Mohendra Singh *



Nothing existed forever.

Nat "King" Cole set a gold standard for smooth jazz singing with his baritone voice in his "Unforgettable/Unforgettable/that's what you lire ... in 1951. All the evidence seems to indicate, that the universe has not existed forever. It had a beginning, about 15 billion years ago.

Stephen Hawking, in a lecture in Japan, said "the universe has not existed forever. Rather, the universe, and time itself, had a beginning in the Big Bang, about 15 billion years ago. The beginning of real time, would have been a singularity." Singularity in physics, means a one-dimensional point that contains a huge mass in an infinitely small space, where density and gravity becomes infinite and space-time curves infinitely, and where the laws of physics do not operate.

Hawking continued: "time must have a beginning if Einstein's General Theory of relativity is correct. But one might raise the question, of whether General Relativity really is correct. We know that General Relativity cannot be quite correct on very small distances though It certainly agrees with all the observational tests that have been carried out over large distances."

The beginning of the Universe as the Big Bang is now agreed by most scientists, but what was before the Big Bang is still unanswered. The creation of the Universe after the Big Bang explosion is more or less explained by physicists. It happened very quickly in the first few fractions of a second, when the universe was filled with an intensely "hot soup of energy and particles" that formed the matter.

The Big Bang theory is the only theory that can explain the presence of Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMBR). Inversely, it support the Big Bang, and the theory of 'cosmic inflation' - the theory that universe expanded much faster than the speed of light, just in a few tiny fractions of a second after the Big Bang.

How the expanding Universe began to accelerate after the Big Bang was captured by the Hubble telescope. Theoretically, we can conceptualise that if we stop the expanding universe at a single point of time and rewind, it will merge into an infinitely small point, smaller than an atom.

With modem telescopes, scientists can view objects many billions of light years away, close to the time of the Big Bang. They can work out how the Big Bang explosion occurred mathematically, 15 billion years ago, by calculation from the size of the universe and the speed with which it is expanding. They can see how 'galaxies' - those fuzzy patches in the sky, move away at very high speeds, because of an effect called "red-shift", a concept for astronomers to mean that the light is seen as 'shifted' towards the red part of the spectrum.

In 1964, two American radio astronomers, Amo Penzias and Robert Wilson discovered leftover and cooled down radiation from early in the history of Universe. For this they won Nobel prize in physics in 1978. These radiations are coming uniformly from every direction in space, which scientists interpret to be the remnant of the incredibly bright light after the Big Bang, and which began to stretch as it expanded. This is now known as microwaves. A microwave telescope can see this ancient light that fills the whole sky with a glow, day and night.

CMBR is the oldest and coldest light in the universe. It shines primarily in the microwave portion of the electromagnetic spectrum and is invisible to the naked eye. Microwaves are a form of electromagnetic radiation, smaller than radio waves but bigger than infrared waves. They are good for transmitting information, such as mobile phone calls, radio and television broadcasting, and for conducting thermal energy to heat food quickly (microwave ovens).

Yet, fundamental physicists are still unable to solve the mystery of how this infinitesimally small, dense and hot point took the initial form as it did. But they can explain what happened after the Big Bang. A British physicist Prof Brian Cox describes how, as a consequence of the Big Bang, subatomic and atomic particles, and matter came to exist in our universe. In modem physics, 'particles' are not like grains of rice as we perceived but like 'ripples' in the quantum field.

Cox begins with a few theoretically motivated events in modem physics as to how such building blocks of our universe, which are fundamentally hydrogen and helium emerged. The Higgs boson, nick-named 'God particle', discovered at CERN's Large Hadron Collider in Geneva (cf. Author's book Points to Ponder p319) further seals the.Big Bang theory. In quantum physics, it was Higgs-like particles that sparked the cosmic explosion. Everything in the universe owes its existence to the Higgs boson.

Cox introduces the first milestone in the formation of the universe after the Big Bang, known as the 'Planck Era'. This is the period occurring mathematically, in 1043 (10 raised to the power 43) seconds after the Big Bang. Written in full, the number has 42 decimal places:
0.000000000000000000000000000000000000000001.

Scientists could count the time, simply because it's related to the strength of the gravitational force. At that time, the four fundamental forces of nature that we know ie gravity, electromagnetism, and the strong and weak nuclear forces, were one and the same force, known as "superforce". There was no matter at this stage, only energy and superforce. This is what physicists call a 'very symmetrical situation'.

Symmetry is the most powerful tool of theoretical physics, as it has become evident that all laws of nature originate in symmetries. The physical laws remain valid at all places and times in the universe, and particles such as atoms remain unchanged after being subjected to a variety of symmetry transformations.

As the universe rapidly expanded and cooled, it underwent a series of spontaneous 'symmetry-breaking' events. This symmetry-breaking is a phenomenon, which usually brings a system from symmetric but disorderly state into one or more definite states (PW Anderson 1972). It's called the Planck Era as mentioned above. The end of the Planck Era saw gravity separate form other forces of nature, and so perfect symmetry was broken.

After the Plank Era, another symmetry-breaking event occurred, which ended at 10'36 seconds, known as the 'Grand Unification Era'. In this era, the 'strong nuclear force' that sticks the quarks together inside protons and neutrons, separated from the other fundamental forces. It's followed by the 'Inflationary Era' when the Universe had a violent expansion known as 'inflation', by a factor of 1026 seconds ie 100 million million times in an unimaginably small space of time, finishing in 10-32 seconds. This was when subatomic particles entered the Universe and none of them had any mass at all.

Physicists are now entering into an era when they are recreating and observing such a symmetry-breaking event at CERN's Large Hadron Collider. This is the great symmetry-breaking event that occurred 10" after the Big Bang. It's called the "electroweak symmetry-breaking event".

At this point, the final two forces of nature - electromagnetism and the weak nuclear force are separated. During this process the subatomic building blocks of everything, such as quarks and electrons acquired mass. The most popular theory of this mechanism is called the Higgs mechanism.

From this point onwards, physicists can know pretty much exactly what happened to the Universe by means of experiments at particle accelerators. They believe the emergence of familiar particles and forces we see in the Universe today happened because of a series of symmetry-breaking events, which began way back at the end of the Planck Era.

The concept of spontaneous symmetry-breaking in the early Planck Era of the Universe, according to Cox, is the same as transitions from water vapour to liquid water to complex snowflakes that hide the underlying simple symmetry of oxygen and hydrogen atoms, as I wrote in a previous article about snowflakes. The complex patterns of the Universe that emerged without prompting, due to falling temperature, obscure the underlying symmetry of the Universe in its initial state.

When the universe had cooled enough, the quarks appeared approximately 10"12 seconds after the Big Bang. It was when the preceding electroweak epoch ended as the electroweak interaction separated into the weak interaction and, electromagnetism. The quarks began to glue together with by, the string nuclear force to form protons and neutrons, known as hadrons, the building blocks of elements. Protons are made of 3 quarks. Quarks along with leptons, such electrons, muons or neutrinos are fundamental point-particles and are themselves made of energy.

So, after only a millionth of a second in the life of the' universe, the first and the simplest chemical element hydrogen '. consisting of a single proton made its appearance. After three, minutes the universe was cold enough for the two protons' and one or two neutrons to stick together to form the nucleus, of helium, second-simplest chemical element. There were also very small amounts of lithium with three protons, and beryllium with four protons.

After three minutes the universe had the four distinct forces we know today: gravity, the strong and weak nuclear forces, and electromagnetism. The universe was then composed of roughly 75% hydrogen (by mass) and 25% helium. After that epoch no elements were created for millions of years. Today the whole universe is made up of 92 elements.


* Dr Irengbam Mohendra Singh wrote this article for The Sangai Express
The writer is based in the UK: Email: irengbammsingh(AT)gmail(DOT)com . Website : www.drimsingh.co.uk
This article was webcasted on January 04, 2018.



* Comments posted by users in this discussion thread and other parts of this site are opinions of the individuals posting them (whose user ID is displayed alongside) and not the views of e-pao.net. We strongly recommend that users exercise responsibility, sensitivity and caution over language while writing your opinions which will be seen and read by other users. Please read a complete Guideline on using comments on this website.




LATEST IN E-PAO.NET
  • Colonial Knowledge Production in NE #8
  • Violence in Manipur 2023-2025 : Timeline
  • The fight for survival in Manipur
  • A call for unity from displaced voices
  • COVID-19: Update 08 July 2025 : Manipur
  • Dogs Are Staying on the Ground :: Poem
  • Football Tournament at Heinoukhongnembi
  • Condemns Kuki Inpi's Directive
  • Installation Ceremony of Lions Club, Imphal
  • All that can go wrong has gone wrong
  • Manipur peaceful from Delhi's perspective
  • Bashanta Ras @Govindaji #2 : Gallery
  • Hypocrisy & the betrayal of sovereignty
  • Healing with Art for children concluded
  • Manipur : Champions 24th Junior Natl Wushu
  • Path to Becoming a Leader Who Inspires
  • Van Mahotsav 2025, festival of life
  • The Flavours of Life :: Poem
  • Assault on sensibilities of the media
  • Revival of MPP after years of bitter disputes
  • Ougri Lirol :: Part 2 : Ooba Video
  • Jianreilung, Chingamba, Masounii : eMing
  • How Jessami conservation of Nongin
  • Shija Hospitals turns 40
  • COVID-19: Update 06 July 2025 : Manipur
  • The Indomitable Young Souls :: Poem
  • Growing network of drug dealers in country
  • Politics of SoO pact since 2008
  • No takers for disturbance-free education
  • 31st Governor Cup Polo Tournament : Gallery
  • PM welcome to Manipur: Feel the reality
  • Kainkhol wins best Social Message Film Award
  • Distortion of facts: Manipur sports movement
  • Govt services reach Manipur's tribal villages
  • 134th Durand Cup Trophies Flag Off
  • COVID-19: Update 05 July 2025 : Manipur
  • How to take care of oily skin in monsoon
  • First-Ever Tripura Esports Championship
  • Konung Kang Chingba #1 : Gallery
  • Manipur Iskcon's 25th Ratha Yatra 2025
  • Native Threshing machine made for farmers
  • COVID-19: Update 04 July 2025 : Manipur
  • Riso Ejang: Youth-led Transformation
  • Include males too in addressing HPV
  • Whispers from the past :: Poem
  • LPU opens permanent outreach centre
  • Raj Bhavan moving on the right track
  • Speculations over PM Modi's visit to state
  • Colonial Knowledge Production in NE #7
  • Make Yourself Visible to Opportunity
  • Orange bowl: tradition with ecological wisdom
  • 10 ways to keep a kitchen garden disease free
  • Between PR, military mandates & AFSPA
  • Allocation fund for MLALAD Fund during PR
  • Denounces Killing of KNA Deputy C-in-C
  • COVID-19: Update 03 July 2025 : Manipur
  • Cases of fake Aadhaar cards
  • Sincere dealing must for stricter Aadhaar
  • Archaeology: Culture of Manipur : Booklet
  • Wanna be a singer? Get Botox
  • A Central institute in Manipur
  • Nagging in the name of love
  • COVID-19: Update 02 July 2025 : Manipur
  • 'Benefits' of Indira's Emergency
  • Social Stigma :: Poem
  • Inking a peace pact: Why, how: SoO quagmire
  • Van Mahotsav under shadow of declining forest
  • 11th Th Kishan Memorial Lecture : Gallery
  • Manipur crisis & the Left media's blind spot
  • COVID-19: Update 01 July 2025 : Manipur
  • Bombom RK : Musclemania Universe NYC
  • The Grief :: Poem
  • Music Concert & Quiz (MCQ) 2.0
  • SoO agreement unlikely to be scrapped
  • Regulating use of plastic carry bags
  • Mera Houchongba @Kangla #4 : Gallery
  • International Day of Yoga @JNMDA : Gallery
  • BD Behring: The inimitable Gentleman I knew
  • Violence in the name of patriotism : Misguided
  • Daily oral vs long-acting injectable for HIV
  • COVID-19: Update 30 June 2025 : Manipur
  • Smile :: Poem
  • Why was President's Rule imposed ?
  • BJP under pressure to forge unity
  • Kang @Leikai in Imphal : Gallery
  • July Calendar for Year 2025 : Tools
  • COVID-19 : A recurring crisis in Manipur
  • DC Kaith and Forestry in Manipur : Book
  • COVID-19: Update 29 June 2025 : Manipur
  • Longing for Peace :: Poem
  • Black badge, slogan protest by peeved scribes
  • Present the true picture before Delhi
  • Pung-Cholom @ Polo Tournament : Gallery
  • Life: A Journey Through Thought & Being
  • Khongjai Hills & Kuki claim to indigeneity
  • Master Time by Managing Information
  • COVID-19: Update 28 June 2025 : Manipur
  • Pride & patriotism in CCpur's army families
  • The Power of Poppy - 87 :: Poem
  • World Decarbonisation Day: green environment
  • Welcome Home - Nganthoi #2 : Gallery
  • Loss of two precious lives from Manipur
  • Balancing civil liberties with public safety
  • COVID-19: Update 27 June 2025 : Manipur
  • Gender equality & human rights are indivisible
  • Stay hydrated this summer season
  • Silent Half of the Sun :: Poem
  • Connecting the dots in the wishlist
  • Assembly record tampering claims by ex-CM
  • The immortal legacy of Pukhramba Kajao
  • International Day against Drug Abuse 2025
  • COVID-19: Update 26 June 2025 : Manipur
  • Black pottery from Ukhrul - tribal heritage
  • Program on "Mission-Drug Free Campus"
  • Play makes a better world
  • Urgent Appeal to the Honourable MLAs
  • Tribal Empowerment Campaign at CCpur
  • Talk doing the round: PM to come
  • 'Emergency' relief for under-fire BJP
  • Golden Jubilee Art Fair @Imphal : Gallery
  • Declaration: Meetei People Convention, Delhi
  • A Flower Among the Rocks :: Review
  • Book Donation Campaign
  • Improved road connectivity boosts livelihoods
  • To Have Great Dreams :: Poem
  • COVID-19: Update 25 June 2025 : Manipur
  • Regret vs Sorry: Technical & moral insight
  • Cocktail of inept Govt, selfish people
  • State trailing others in cleanliness
  • Colonial Knowledge in NE India #6
  • UHI effect & rising temperatures in Manipur
  • Frequent road blockades cripple economy
  • COVID-19: Update 24 June 2025 : Manipur
  • Unite Health with Community health services
  • NSU, Imphal, tops IIRF Ranking 2025
  • Endless conflict :: Poem
  • Pak nobel pish prize for Trump
  • May 3, 2023 - June 24, 2025: Failure of Delhi
  • Hotter days, sudden rainfall no more a rarity
  • "The Great June Uprising" #2 : Gallery
  • How to Build a Career, Lead with Purpose
  • 2nd Foundation Day- Karnataka Meitei Assn
  • COVID-19: Update 23 June 2025 : Manipur
  • NSCN-IM Amnesty threatens to isolate it
  • Sunset :: Poem
  • Intl Yoga Day for a healthier environment
  • Of clogged drains and plastics
  • Poor roads testify Govt indifference
  • Welcome Home - Nganthoi #1 : Gallery
  • The Silent Erosion of Manipuri Language
  • Design health services around people
  • Serene Hills Host Inspiring Int'l Yoga Day
  • COVID-19: Update 22 June 2025 : Manipur
  • Chopper services between Senapati & Imphal
  • High Court Judges interacted with convicts
  • Redyeing the Fabric :: Poem
  • Differences yet to be resolved stand
  • Border fencing rage as solution eludes
  • Radio E-pao: 14 new songs updated
  • Climate Adaptive Agroforestry
  • Manipur overlooked demographic shifts
  • Young designers shine on Fashion Stage
  • COVID-19: Update 21 June 2025 : Manipur
  • International Day of Yoga at Lamphelpat
  • International Day of Yoga at JNMDA
  • The Power of Poppy - 86 :: Poem
  • Keishampat Lairembi Haraoba #1 : Gallery
  • Crisis in Manipur's Contemporary Education
  • Best 8 Performances in Manipuri Cinema
  • Identity: Caught between China & India ?
  • COVID-19: Update 20 June 2025 : Manipur
  • To The Father Who Listens :: Poem
  • How does net suspension affect youths ?
  • Targeting farmers to cripple state's economy
  • The virus is back and spreading
  • Who is afraid of Manipur ?
  • A threatened lily growing at Shirui Hills
  • World Environment Day in Manipur : Gallery
  • Ambubachi Mela at Maa Kamakhya
  • COVID-19: Update 19 June 2025 : Manipur
  • Dolls made from repurposed vegetable refuse
  • Condemns Attack on Farmer & Killing
  • Abhorrent politics of SoO
  • Police arrogance on harmless drivers
  • "The Great June Uprising" #1 : Gallery
  • UK Meetei diaspora run for Myanmar : Gallery
  • Thang-Ta Day @Khuman Lampak #3 : Gallery
  • 50 years of Pebet #2 : Gallery
  • Indo-Naga Talks (From 2012) :: Timeline
  • Protest @Checkon -AT arrest [Jun 9] : Gallery
  • Protests - AT arrest [Jun 8 night] : Gallery
  • Aftermath of flooding @ Khurai #1 : Gallery
  • /li>
  • Flooding at JNIMS Hospital #2 : Gallery
  • North East NSS Festival @ MU : Gallery
  • Trump's tariff legacy & its global echo
  • Flooding Imphal East [31 May] #3 : Gallery
  • Flooding Imphal East [31 May] #2 : Gallery
  • Flooding Imphal East [31 May] #1 : Gallery
  • S Nirupama @Miss Universe : Gallery
  • Protesters to Raj Bhavan [May 25]: Gallery
  • Human Chain @Airport road [May 26]: Gallery
  • Miss Shirui Pageant Contestant: Gallery
  • 48 hrs Bandh: protest security forces: Gallery
  • Protest Rally: Journalist harassment: Gallery
  • HSLC 2025: Full Result (Check Roll No)
  • HSLC 2025: Important Info & Grading System
  • HSLC 2025 : Compartmental candidates
  • HSLC 2025 : Comparative Statement
  • HSLC 2025 : Statistical Abstract
  • HSLC 2025 : District Pass Percentage
  • HSLC 2025 : Govt School Pass %
  • HSLC 2025 : Aided School Pass %
  • HSLC 2025 : Private School Pass %
  • People's Convention on 3rd May #2 : Gallery
  • Featured Front Page Photo 2025 #2: Gallery
  • Riya Khwairakpam : HSE Science Topper
  • Keisham Hannah : HSE Arts Topper
  • Warepam Lidia : HSE Commerce Topper
  • HSE 2025 Result : Science Full Result
  • HSE 2025 Result : Arts Full Result
  • HSE 2025 Result : Commerce Full Result
  • HSE 2025 Information / Abbreviation
  • HSE 2025 Topper : Science
  • HSE 2025 Topper : Arts
  • HSE 2025 Topper : Commerce
  • HSE 2025 : Pass Percentage
  • HSE 2025 : Result Abstract
  • HSE 2025 : Candidates with Highest Marks
  • President's Rule in Manipur : 1967 - 2025
  • Downloadable Manipuri Calendar :: 2025