How He Did It #1: The Big Bang and Creative Destruction

Transcription

1 How He Did It #1: The Big Bang and Creative Destruction Photo: N. Smith, University of California David Siegrist, Ph.D. Wrestlers March 29, 2015 David W. Siegrist Material may not be reproduced except with proper attribution and for personal/educational but non-commercial purposes. No derivatives.

2 The Big Bang and Creative Destruction (H/t to J. Schumpeter) Usually, we expect to blow up Something, and get Nothing. Nothing but ash and trash. In the Big Bang, Nothing is said to have exploded into Something. And that Something grew exponentially and engendered life, among many other things. Materialists say that was the result of chance. However, a universe in which Nothing grows into Something is hardly the result of chance, and needs to be explained. I believe that a theistic explanation is much more realistic than chance. In a universe where everything is winding down after the Big Bang, why does complexity build up, e.g., stars, planets, life? More consistent with a Creator and a Purpose.

3 Sir Arthur Eddington on Entropy as a Central Narrative of the Universe Energy can be dissipated so that it can no longer do useful work. That dissipation is known as entropy. The law that entropy always increases holds I think the supreme position among the laws of nature. If someone points out to you that your pet theory is in disagreement with Maxwell s equations, then so much the worse for Maxwell s equations. If it is found to be contradicted by observation, well these experimentalists do bungle things sometimes. But if your theory is found to be against the 2d Law of Thermodynamics, I can give you no hope; there is nothing for it but to collapse in deepest humiliation.

4 Entropy At the beginning, the universe had high energy and order. (All the four forces were unified, for instance). Hence: Low entropy. The narrative of the universe may appear to be one of expansion and cooling, gradually running down over time and becoming more disordered. Leading to eventual heat death as energy dissipates. However, we find structure in the universe as well, some of it quite fine-grained. How can we account for that complexity? Has entropy (codified in the 2d Law of Thermodynamics) been violated?

5 Entropy Loophole Entropy can actually decrease in a local area, provided that overall entropy continues to increase in its larger environment. For instance, the earth uses radiation from the sun to do useful work. Entropy decreases where order is created, say by growing a plant. However, in the wider system, entropy is still created at a greater rate. The useful work of growing the plant is outpaced by the waste heat generated in that process. Entropy example: The drive to Pittsburgh, in which the gasoline used has an amount of stored energy, some of which provides the actual motive power to travel ( Useful work ), while the majority of the gasoline s energy is dissipated as waste heat ( Entropy ) out the tailpipe. We will discuss creating complexity and entropy further later, but first we need to cover why there is something rather than nothing.

6 There has to be Something before there can be Complex Structure As we know from E=Mc2, matter may be seen as a congealed form of energy. As the universe expanded and cooled, matter precipitated out of the primordial dense radiation. Created a particle zoo. Quarks combined to became protons and neutrons. With electrons, they become atoms. Atoms form everything that we experience as matter. Why energy should form matter is not well known. Humans can create particles in atom smashers.

7 A Funny Thing about Creating Through a Big Bang To build physical complexity, one needs basic stuff as well as energy to do the work to make that stuff more interesting. A Big Bang is a natural heat engine. A heat engine works by higher energy material passing from one area to disperse in an area of lower energy (heat). The universe is a heat engine. It has a overall heat of 2.7 degrees above absolute zero left over from the Big Bang. The sun acts as a heat engine, warming the earth and preforming useful work here. Starting through a Big Bang is conducive to the universe accumulating complexity because it builds in an energy source to do work, as well as providing a heat sink to dissipate the energy. Energy moving from the source to the sink can do useful work. WMAP image of the cosmos

8 The Large Scale Structure of the Universe Formed from the Big Bang (Largely drawn from Cosmic Evolution). Vast gas clouds spread as the universe expanded and cooled. Quarks and electrons formed Hydrogen and Helium. Inhomogeneities led to the clustering of some of these clouds. In some of these clusters, the gas infell on itself due to gravitational attraction. Large amounts of gas infalling leads to large, dense structures that have tremendous heat and pressure in the center. If heat and pressure are sufficient, these large structures start to fuse their inner Hydrogen into heavier elements. This nuclear fusion throws off a tremendous amount of energy as a star.

9 Further Creation of Large Structure Due to Physics As very large stars consume all their hydrogen, they start to fuse other lighter elements into heavier ones. When their fuel ultimately runs out, these large stars may collapse and then explode in Supernovas. These spread the heavier elements into space. Clouds of space dust may form into planets due to gravitational forces. These planets may orbit next generation stars, also due to gravity. The heavy elements enable the planets to support life, among other interesting things. Images from Wikipedia

10 More about those Particles of Matter What is all that cosmic structure made of? Recall that matter coalesced out of the primordial energy released at the Beginning of time. Matter is made up of atoms. Atoms are made of protons, neutrons, and electrons. Protons and neutrons are made of two types of Quarks. They are Bound so tightly that labs don't find single quarks.

11 Matter is Also Not all that Solid In an atom, the nucleus is to the electron cloud as a fly is to a stadium. What we experience as solid is mostly extremely thinly filled space. (The space is filled by the electron wave). The solidity illusion is created by electromagnetic charge s repulsion of like charges, among other factors. How the indeterminate quantum world turns into our classical macro view of physics, with touchable objects that we can experience and make sense of, needs to be explained by naturalists since its not needed physically. Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics that QM world should not be thought of with classical physics concepts. Not: Is it Really a wave or a particle? 1. Macroscopic level - Matter 2. Molecular level. 3. Atomic level. 4. Subatomic level - Electron 5. Subatomic level - Quarks 6. String level

12 Quarks Bond into Stable Structure Due to a Mysterious Charge There are two main kinds of quarks. They bind together due to color charge. The color charge binds quarks so tightly (through the exchange of gluons ) that single quarks are never found by themselves. Quarks make up protons and neutrons. Protons are one of the few stable particles. They don t decay. Neutrons decay if they are outside the nucleus. Protons and neutrons stay together in atoms due to this strong force. (1 of only 4 forces that we know of). Protons and nuclei are a critical part of structure of the universe. Naturalists need to account for the strong force and color charge, inter alia, just happening. A proton, composed of two up quarks and one down quark.

13 At a Basic Level, Matter Itself Isn t all that Straightforward Subatomic particles have a property known as spin. (This isn t actually spin as we know it, but a special intrinsic property that can be up or down ). 1/2 spin particles rotate 720 degrees back to original. Spin can be measured by scientists in magnetic fields. Matter (Fermions) have fractional spin, e.g., 1/2, 3/2. Energy carriers (Bosons) have integer spin, e.g., 1, 2. (Matter particles can t be in the same quantum state. Bosons like photons can actually prefer to share the same space/state with each other, such as with lasers.) Besides spin, matter and energy carriers are very similar. Something we should remember if we ask how God, who transcends time and space, can create material things. After a 360 degree rotation, the spiral flips between clockwise and counterclockwise orientations. It returns to its original configuration after spinning a full 720 degrees. "Spin One- Half (Slow)" by Jason Hise, Wikimedia.

14 Matter is Made of Atoms There are about 100 kinds of atoms. Each atom has a different number of protons in its nucleus. (Elements with more protons than 92 are unstable). Each atom has an equal number of protons (positive) and electrons (negative charge). Atoms are electrically neutral. Atoms have a tiny but dense, positive nucleus and a cloud of negative electrons (e - ). Atoms can be categorized into groups that share similar chemical properties (as in the Periodic Table).

15 Outer Electron Shells Obey the Duet, Octet, and 18 Rules 18 The bonding in carbon dioxide (CO2): all atoms are surrounded by 8 electrons. Atoms are a bit like the letters in the alphabet from which words (recognizable materials) are made. Atoms bind with each other based on the number of electrons in their outer shell. Atoms bind together in molecules. (Millions of different kinds). Molecular properties are different from those of the constituent atoms. Atoms want to have a completed outer ring. (Energy advantage- PW Atkins). A basic source of structure in the world. Everything around us. Electrons don t collapse in on the nucleus, despite its opposite electrical charge, due to the Pauli Exclusion Principle and Quantum Mechanics.

16 Atoms have Different Properties Depending on the Number of Electrons in their Outer Shell

17 Kind of like Atoms want to plug in to other appropriate atoms to fill both their outer electron rings. Bosons bond the fermions/matter together. The atom lego bricks combine to build molecular structures of great diversity, complexity and richness. The stuff and forces of the universe seem to lend themselves to achieving variety and complexity. Very conducive to a central narrative of building up complexity with the aid of an energy source. It could have been different. (But we wouldn t be here).

18 The Way Atoms Bind Together in Molecules Drives Their Structure (from PW Atkins, What is Chemistry?) Ionic Bonding: If atoms borrow or lend an electron, the atoms (now ions) become electromagnetically attracted to each other They cling together and form solids. Covalent bonds share electrons between the atoms. The molecules can be independent and form gases. Metallic bonds. Metal atoms share their excess electrons, making the metals malleable, strong, and good conductors of electricity.

19 Something about Carbon Carbon absorbs energy from the sun extremely well and resonate. Carbon forms rings that are stable when they resonate. Carbon rings tend to pi stack in offset layers due to electric charge. The pattern is found in DNA.

20 Carbon Is a Key to Chemistry Carbon can bind to itself & form chains. These backbones can be soluble. Great examples: Petroleum, plastics, DNA, proteins... In living things, simple monomers are linked to form larger polymers, made up of repetitive sequences of monomer sub-units. Amino acids are linked to form proteins. Simple carbohydrates polymerize to form complex sugars and starches. Fatty acids make up lipids, and Nucleotides link to form nucleic acids such as RNA and DNA. (Taggart, UM)

21 Atoms are Just a Small Part of the Stuff of the Universe Dark energy and matter aren't well understood. Dark matter has a gravitational affect on the rotation of galaxies. Dark energy pervades space, and has an anti-gravitational impact. All the matter that we know is basically a small contamination of the mass-energy that makes up the universe. All that other mass-energy does not support the construction of complexity as we know it. Dark particles interact weakly, and so are hardly suitable for building complexity. A further cosmic process was needed to create regular matter in this universe that we could comprehend/be part of. That further suggests to me the unlikelihood that the universe we know happened just by chance, because it would have been simpler to have a less complicated universe.

22 Conclusion A central tendency in the universe is to build up complexity locally whole dissipating energy globally. Creating the universe through a Big Bang supplies a continuing energy source that sometimes builds complexity. The world manifests itself in a way that is not just natural, but has many aspects that require further explanation. E.g., mass equates to energy; ill-understood spin makes something matter instead of energy; the classical structure we see is very different from the quantum underpinnings (e.g., wavicles instead of particles, etc.); and is based on things that are smaller and more ephemeral than they appear; etc. Occam s Razor would suggest that the universe, already so mightily improbable, would not be more complicated than it needs to be. To me, these unusual characteristics would be supportive of a purpose to the universe. That is, to create that structure intentionally, presumably for the enjoyment of the Creator, rather than through random chance. In coming weeks, I plan to show how this central tendency to build complexity is further borne out in the world. Having a Creator is very compatible with science s discoveries. Coincidence is not.