What was the trigger?

[JJ]

What does the modern theory say ? what was the trigger for the Big Bang?

[astro_toronto]

Scientists think it was Quantum Fluctuations. But I couldn't find any popular explanations about what it is and what was the trigger for them...

[mykyl]

Hi, Stephen Hawking among others has suggested that trillions of Big Bangs are going off all the time. Each one isolated from the rest and having its own unique laws of physics, some will exist for an infinity others for a tiny fraction of a second. I've heard this described as the multiverse and a way of imagining it, he suggests, is to think of it as soap bubbles in a bath, each bubble a universe in its own right. Maybe the constant births and deaths in this multiverse trigger new bangs, some expanding to enormous dimensions others no larger than the diameter of a proton.

[Stephen R. Hickman]

According to M Theory, there are an infinite number of membranes beyond our universe. From time to time, two or more collide or, more accurately, interract with each other in a sort of wavy fasion. The interractions result in a Big Bang within each interracting membrane. A given membrane may have experienced several, or even several trillion, interractions, thus housing just as many universes, each with a unique set of physical laws! None of the universes, however, would displace any of the other ones, as each exist in its own "dimension". Some universes are parallel, while others are skewed!

[Parsec]

I don?t think there is a modern day theory to explain the ?triggering? of the big bang.
Using background radiation and physics the universe can be traced back to just before the big bang. But the cause is totally unknown.
When the system tries to ?get inside? singularities, everything just simply breaks down. We don?t have the energies to recreate such an event. So, it can?t really be studied.

As other people have eluded to here there are many ideas. M theory, String theory, Multi Universe model, Standard model.
And I am quite sure when the Large Hadron Collider comes on line it will spawn at least one more idea.

So, it may be a long time, if ever that we know exactly just what triggered this whole thing into existence.

Ron W.

[Stephen R. Hickman]

M Theory actually does explain the triggering effect of the Big Bang, as my previous post explains. The calculations are still being combed through for any errors, but so far it is the only scientific theory which indeed gives us insight into the mechanics of our universe's origins.

[Parsec]

Interesting, I did not realize they had pulled eleven dimensional supergravity and superstring that close together. But then I have not been following that closly.
I guess Ed Witten must have been 'burning the midnight oil' on the matrix.

[Stephen R. Hickman]

No problem. To get you up to speed, here's what I know of late: The 5 String Theories were unsuccessful in harmonizing until, in a last-ditch effort, theorists applied the 11th dimention, as the Supergravity Theory proposed. The results were profound--it unified all 5 String Theories AND the Supergravity Theory into one. It also transformed the strings into membranes, so the new theory was dubbed "Membrane", or "M" Theory.

[Jonnyb13]

If the universe was created by a 'Big Bang' then how did it create every type of element and other things like rock? And if so, does that mean that in every universe there are different elements ?

[Parsec]

The early Universe after the big bang did not have all the elements there are today.
The first heavy elements did not start to appear until the first generation stars started to supernova.

So, your rocks and higher level elements did not exist at the big bang.

The heavy elements we have now were all created in supernovas.
Every atom in your body, came from supernova billions of years ago.

The thing is we don't know if there are other universes. If by some chance there are, there is no reason they have to be identical to this one.

Ron

[SupernovA]

It's known that any explosion just leave destruction and ruins , but here in our Big Bang it's completly different , The explosion here doesn't cause destruction and ruins otherwise it made a complex organized Universe and the least alive Planet which is Earth if there is no other lives somewhere else , By another way , I'd read that the Dimensions and the Distances and the Weights .....ECT , in our Universe are as how it must be to make this Universe still exist , And if the Dimensions and the Distances and the Weights .....ECT were lower than how it really is now that would cause the internal collapsing of the universe on itself , and if the Dimensions and the Distances and the Weights .....ECT were higher than how it really is now that would cause the lost of the universe in the unlimited space , but the Dimensions and the Distances and the Weights .....ECT as how it is now is the only fitable suitable ones to keep the universe Rounding and Rounding and still exist .
So due to that it prove that the Big Bang is completly differnt than any else explosion we'd ever known .
So I myself belive that that Big Bang had been organized by Someone out there , call it God , call it Space Creatures , call it whatever you like but there is no doubt it had been Organized by someone out there ..

[Stephen R. Hickman]

I agree with SupernovA. The universe is so well orchestrated that it indeed seems well designed. Therefore, there must be a Designer. Otherwise, the probability of the universe coming into fruition, as it is now, is so small as to require a supercomputer to calculate it. The theories of the universe's origins could be considered theories as to how the Designer did it.

[moonster]

Talking about probability, it's incorrect to make any assumptions by observing single event. It is possible there are infinite number of "bad" universes, where due to different physical laws no stars exist and of course no observers are born to tell "our universe could be better"
Modern M-theory suggests that Big Bang might be the result of a collision of floating in 12-dimension space strings or branes. Such collisions are happening continuously creating new and new universes.

[Stephen R. Hickman]

That is indeed the prevailing theory, but one must ask, "How did the branes begin?". Eventually one must accept one of three possibilities: 1.) the branes were created; 2.) the branes evolved; 3.) the branes have always existed as-is. There is no known scientific evidence suggesting that any of these possibilities are accurate; therefore, to accept any of these possibilities is to do so completely by faith.

[bear]

Ahh the joys of metaphysics! If the basic tenants of quantum are correct then there MUST have been an observer to create the result!