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 4 years ago  

Ah ok, this makes things clearer :)

I didn't know about this idea (and have not read anything deep on it). However, the article dates from 2018 (this can be guessed from the last paragraph), and Chapline's work is actually a little bit older (2014-2015 I think, after a quick search on the web). In the meantime:

  • The results of the Event Horizon Telescope have been released (first observation of the "shadow" of a black hole);
  • Gravitational wave observation has been confirmed many times, and consists in the direct observation of the merging of two black holes.

Therefore, I am quite unsure Chapline's theory survives the most recent data (and this is probably why it is not followed by the astrophysics community).

What did you think of the idea of different phases of space-time (not novel AFAIK), for example our current universe being in a phase that condensed out of a higher energy phase, and at some point before heat-death, parts of the universe may condense into a lower energy phase. In terms of defining these "phases", they may have radically different particles, forces and laws.

Pure speculation?

 4 years ago  

The universe is expected to have gone through different phases, or epochs, during it history. I am not sure this is what you want to talk about.

For instance, we have the so-called electroweak phase transition corresponding to the restoration of the electroweak symmetry (strictly speaking, this is a cross-over in the Standard Model but not necessarily in its extensions). On each side of the transition, the laws of nature are different (here, the particles are massless prior to the transition).

So not, this is not speculation, but expected! :)

Thanks, I dont have a highly defined expectation of what the phases were, but certainly if the laws of nature changed then that is consistent with what I was talking about.

 4 years ago  

Let me try to empahsise my example. Who knows, it may help ;)

In the Standard Model, the masses of the particles arise from the Higgs field. This field has the particularity that it cannot be turned off (today), so that particles are massive no matter what.

In the early universe, there is a moment at which the Higgs field is actually turned. All the particle dynamics was different at that time (massive objects vs. massless ones).