The Origin of the Universe and the Arrow of Time

Google Tech Talk
August 13, 2010

ABSTRACT

Presented by Sean Carroll.

One of the most obvious facts about the universe is that the past is different from the future. We can remember yesterday, but not tomorrow; we can turn an egg into an omelet, but can't turn an omelet into an egg. That's the arrow of time, which is consistent throughout the observable universe. The arrow can be explained by assuming that the very early universe was extremely orderly, and disorder has been increasing ever since. But why did the universe start out so orderly?

I will talk about the nature of time, the origin of entropy, and how what happened before the Big Bang may be responsible for the arrow of time we observe today.

Speaker Info: Sean Carroll

I'm a theoretical physicist at Caltech in sunny Pasadena, California. My research interests include theoretical aspects of cosmology, field theory, and gravitation. I want to learn about fundamental physics by studying the structure and evolution of the universe. These days I'm especially interested in inflation, the arrow of time, and what happened at or before the Big Bang. I've done a bunch of work on dark matter and dark energy, modified gravity, topological defects, extra dimensions, and violations of fundamental symmetries.

I recently finished writing a popular-level book on cosmology and the arrow of time: From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time, which I expect all of you to buy. I previously wrote a graduate textbook, Spacetime and Geometry: An Introduction to General Relativity, and recorded a set of lectures on cosmology for the Teaching Company. I started blogging back in 2004, and keep it up to this day with the help of several friends at Cosmic Variance.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• google tech talk
• physics
• cosmology
• entropy

[megacaviagek]

I used to know about the Arrow of Time, but then I took it i...

...Okay that joke is really lame.

[spcam777]

I LOVE reading all these Einsteins who want to argue. Get a F'ing degree and take on real science. Also, get out of your underwear and grow up. What a laugh. (It's like driving and a-holes with cars- anyone with a computer and a stupid opinion...)

[MrKorrazonCold]

Overlapping waves form all wave-centers of the universe combine intensities to form the wave-medium density (space) at each point of space.

Total amplitude inward spherical waves at every point always seek a minimum, as trillions waves cancel, sum opposite vectors always zero is reason for symmetry or conservation laws

Redshift with distance a consequence of limited range overlapping spherical in+/-out waves with distance, less wave interaction, less energy exchange and Doppler causes redshift.

[MrKorrazonCold]

Our Future just like water receding from the shoreline into the bass of an incoming wave in the ocean formed by the mass of every observable spherical region of the universe contracting (enfolding spacetime) multiplying at right-angles forming+/-breaking at every point of space, and forming the in-wave of our wave-centers forming+/-breaking spherical electron out-wave fronts unfolding time dividing at right-angles

When energy increases the mass of waves are forming+/-breaking father back in time

[spcam777]

And to those that missed the point: yeah, the Universe will die. So go end it all now, douche. Seriously? Do people have the ability to think?

[KTK401]

It's coming soon!

[KaanOnay]

Time is directional from bigness to smallness and it is not matching to our 3D directionality.

Watch my video: "What Zero is: The Quantum Moment vs. Speed Reality"

[nickharvey7]

Interesting video!

This is an invitation to see an artist theory on the physics of light and time!

This theory is based on two postulates

1. Is that the quantum wave particle function Ψ represents the forward passage of time ∆E ∆t ≥ h/2π itself

2. Is that Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle ∆×∆p×≥h/4π that is formed by the w- function is the same uncertainty we have with any future event that we can interact with turning the possible into the actual!

[thedv8ed1]

we're close to finding a cure to cancer and the reason we cant beat the cold viris is because it mutates so fast its near impossible to get rid of it

[zoso1234]

The Universe would eventually become dead and a cold wasteland.....so my question is this: WTF is the point of existence if the universe and all things in it become complete nothingness?