A world born from nothing. Scenarios for the further evolution of the universe

26.09.2019

State Educational Institution of Higher Professional Education "USTU-UPI named after the first President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin"

Institute of Educational information technology

Faculty of Distance Education

Abstract

on the topic: Evolution of the Universe, its various models

discipline: Concepts modern natural science

Ekaterinburg

Introduction

What is the Universe, Earth, Moon, Sun, stars? Where is the beginning and where is the end of the Universe, how long has it existed, what does it consist of and where are the boundaries of its knowledge? Studying the Universe, even only the part of it we know, is a monumental task. It took the work of many generations to obtain the information that modern scientists have.

The problem of the origin of the Universe occupied people even before the appearance of modern science. The basis of interest is the desire to reach the root cause of all things. For example, the Bible even states exact date creation of the world - 5 thousand years BC. The historical rationale for this date may be that it roughly corresponds to the last ice age- 10 thousand years BC. In the 5th century AD, the author of Christian Science, St. Augustine, pointed out that before the emergence of the Universe, the concept of time was meaningless, which surprisingly coincides with the ideas of modern science. Augustine wrote that God created both the Universe and time, so there was no time before the birth of the Universe. Why then did the Universe come into being at some specific point in time? Ancient Greeks: Plato, Aristotle believed that the world is unchangeable and exists forever, but only sometimes catastrophes occur in it, which throw humanity back.

The purpose of this work is to analyze various models of the existence and evolution of the Universe, including development scenarios solar system, of which our planet Earth is an integral part.

Chapter 1. Composition of the Universe and its dimensions

The visible part of the Universe consists of hundreds of billions of galaxies, and each galaxy contains tens of billions of stars. For every inhabitant of the Earth there are a billion stars, which significantly expands the possibilities little prince Exupery, who was modestly content with just one planet. The stars in the Universe are organized into giant star systems called galaxies. But that's just visible part Universe.

The star system in which our Sun is located as an ordinary star is called the Milky Way. The number of stars in the Galaxy is about 1012 (trillion). The Milky Way, a bright, silvery band of stars, encircles the entire sky, making up the bulk of our Galaxy. The solar system is not located at the center of the Galaxy. In the center of the Galaxy there is a core with a diameter of 1000-2000 pc - a giant dense cluster of stars. The core contains many red giants and short-period Cepheids (large clusters of stars).

Upper main sequence stars, and especially supergiants and classical Cepheids, make up the younger population. It is located further from the center and forms a relatively thin layer or disk. Among the stars in this disk there is dusty matter and clouds of gas. Subdwarfs and giants form a spherical system around the core and disk of the Galaxy.

Science knows the nature of only 5% of the matter that makes up the Universe. We see this 5% (4% ordinary matter - planets, nebulae, etc., 1% stars and galaxies) around us and are made of it ourselves. The rest is a great mystery, namely 70% dark energy (a recently discovered form of antigravity), and 25% dark matter (invisible particles with unknown properties) and 5% visible matter (see Fig. 1).

The mass of our Galaxy is now estimated in different ways, it is equal to approximately 2*1011 masses of the Sun (the mass of the Sun is 2*1030 kg), with 1/1000 of it contained in interstellar gas and dust. The mass of the Andromeda galaxy is almost the same, while the mass of the Triangulum galaxy is estimated to be 20 times less. The diameter of our galaxy is 100,000 light years. Through painstaking work, Moscow astronomer V.V. Kukarin in 1944 found indications of the spiral structure of the Galaxy, and it turned out that we live in the space between two spiral branches, which is poor in stars. In some places in the sky with a telescope, and in some places even with the naked eye, you can discern close groups of stars connected by mutual gravity, or star clusters.

Chapter 2. Models of the evolution of the Universe

The universe is everything that exists. From the smallest grains of dust and atoms to huge accumulations of matter of stellar worlds and stellar systems. Therefore, it would not be a mistake to say that any science, one way or another, studies the Universe, or more precisely, one or another of its aspects. Chemistry studies the world of molecules, physics studies the world of atoms and elementary particles, biology studies the phenomena of living nature. But there is scientific discipline, the object of study of which is the Universe itself. This is a special branch of astronomy, the so-called cosmology. Cosmology is the study of the Universe as a whole.

With the development of cybernetics in various fields scientific research Modeling techniques have become very popular. The construction of various models is one of the important ways of understanding the objectively existing world. Objects, phenomena and processes occurring in the Universe are very complex. Modeling allows us to identify the most significant characteristic features these processes.

With the development of science, which increasingly reveals physical processes, occurring in the world around us, most scientists gradually moved to materialistic ideas about the infinity of the Universe. Here, the discovery by I. Newton (1643 - 1727) of the law of universal gravitation, published in 1687, was of great importance.

One of the important consequences of this law was the statement that in a finite Universe all its matter should be pulled together into a single close system in a limited period of time, while in an infinite Universe matter under the influence of gravity is collected in certain limited volumes (according to the ideas of that time - in stars), uniformly filling the Universe.

Great value For the development of modern ideas about the structure and development of the Universe, the general theory of relativity, created by A. Einstein (1879 - 1955), has its place. It generalizes Newton's theory of gravity to large masses and velocities comparable to the speed of light. Indeed, a colossal mass of matter is concentrated in galaxies, and the speeds of distant galaxies and quasars are comparable to the speed of light.

One of the significant consequences general theory relativity is the conclusion about the continuous movement of matter in the Universe - the nonstationarity of the Universe. This conclusion was obtained in the 20s of our century by the Soviet mathematician A.A. Friedman (1888 - 1925). He showed that, depending on the average density of matter, the Universe should either expand or contract. In the future, the expansion of the Universe will be replaced by compression, and at an average density equal to or less than critical, the expansion will not stop. Two latest options were actively considered by astrophysicists, and in the 80s they included the unimaginably rapid expansion of the Universe (inflation), which occurred in the first moments of the Big Bang.

The theory of Alexander Friedman, in contrast to Einstein, who considered the Universe stable and unchanging, most fully describes the model of its origin and development. Friedman's views laid the foundation for further study of the processes occurring in the Universe.

Fundamentally new stage in the development of modern evolutionary cosmology is associated with the name of the American physicist G.A. Gamow (1904-1968), thanks to whom the concept of a hot Universe entered science. According to his proposed model of the “beginning” of the evolving Universe, Lemaitre’s “primary atom” consisted of highly compressed neutrons, the density of which reached a monstrous value - one cubic centimeter of the primary substance weighed a billion tons. As a result of the explosion of this “first atom”, according to G.A. Gamow formed a complete cosmological cauldron with a temperature of about three billion degrees, where natural synthesis took place chemical elements. Fragments of the primary egg - individual neutrons - then decayed into electrons and protons, which, in turn, combined with undecayed neutrons to form the nuclei of future atoms. All this happened in the first 30 minutes after the Big Bang.

The hot model was a specific astrophysical hypothesis that indicated ways to experimentally verify its consequences. Gamow predicted the current existence of remnants of thermal radiation from the primordial hot plasma, and his collaborators Dlfer and Hermann, back in 1948, quite accurately calculated the temperature of this residual radiation of the present-day Universe. However, Gamow and his collaborators failed to provide a satisfactory explanation for the natural formation and prevalence of heavy chemical elements in the Universe, which was the reason for the skeptical attitude towards his theory on the part of specialists. As it turned out, the proposed mechanism of nuclear fusion could not provide the currently observed quantities of these elements.

Scientists began to look for other physical models of the “beginning”. In 1961, academician Ya.B. Zeldovich put forward an alternative cold model, according to which the original plasma consisted of a mixture of cold (with a temperature below absolute zero) degenerate particles - protons, electrons and neutrinos. Three years later, astrophysicists I.D. Novikov and A.G. Doroshkevich produced comparative analysis two opposite models of cosmological initial conditions - hot and cold - and indicated the path to experimental verification and selection of one of them. It was proposed to try to detect the remnants of primary radiation by studying the spectrum of radiation from stars and cosmic radio sources. The discovery of remnants of primary radiation would confirm the correctness of the hot model, and if they do not exist, then this would indicate in favor of the cold model.

At the end of the 60s, a group of American scientists led by R. Dicke began attempts to detect cosmic microwave background radiation. But they were ahead of L. Pepsias and R. Wilson, who received the Nobel Prize in 1978 for the discovery of the microwave background (this official name cosmic microwave background radiation) at a wavelength of 7.35 cm.

It is noteworthy that future laureates Nobel Prize We were not looking for cosmic microwave background radiation, but were mainly engaged in debugging the radio antenna for working under the satellite communications program. From July 1964 to April 1965, at various antenna positions, they recorded cosmic radiation, the nature of which was initially unclear to them. This radiation turned out to be the cosmic microwave background radiation.

Thus, as a result astronomical observations Recently, it has been possible to unambiguously resolve the fundamental question of the nature of the physical conditions that prevailed in the early stages cosmic evolution: the hot “beginning” model turned out to be the most adequate. What has been said, however, does not mean that all theoretical statements and conclusions of Gamow’s cosmological concept were confirmed. Of the two initial hypotheses of the theory - about the neutron composition of the “cosmic egg” and the hot state of the young Universe - only the latter has stood the test of time, indicating the quantitative predominance of radiation over matter at the origins of the currently observed cosmological expansion.

The “freezing” scenario was developed by American physicists Fred Adams and Gregory Laughlin even before the discovery of the accelerated expansion of the Universe - in 1997 (the model is based on the standard model). According to their model, the history of our Universe has four eras:

The stellar era (began hundreds of millions of years after the Big Bang, the first stars began to appear in the Universe and intensive generation of energy began due to nuclear fusion in the bowels of stars. These processes continue today. Scientists have calculated that when the Universe turns 1014 years old, there will be no space left free hydrogen, and the stars will end their existence).

The era of degeneration covers the period of 1015 - 1037 years, all that remains of the sparkling stars are neutron stars and white dwarfs, black holes are accumulating and growing rapidly, nuclear matter will decay, protons will decay into positrons, photons, neutrinos and, ultimately, ordinary matter in the composition of planets and white dwarfs will begin to turn into radiation.

The era of black holes falls on the time period 1038 - 10100. At this time, all protons and neutrons (baryons) will disappear and the only macro-objects in the Universe will remain black holes and they will soon evaporate into radiation and disappear in explosions.

The dark era will come when the age of the universe exceeds 10,100 years. Only quanta will remain from matter electromagnetic radiation almost 0 temperature and stable leptons (neutrinos, electrons and positrons).

The "inflating universe" model was proposed in 2003 by R. Caldwell, M. Kamionkowski and Weinberg. The expansion of the Universe cannot be explained in “hot Universe” models. The increasing increase in dark energy (vacuum) will lead to universal anti-collapse. The rate of expansion of space will increase to such an extent that it will tear apart galaxies, i.e. here antigravity, the removal of all points at the same time, acquired decisive importance. Planetary systems will disintegrate, the planets will lose contact with the Sun. Stars and planets are destroyed. Chemical compounds break down into atoms, but the atoms also lose stability; the nuclei cannot hold electrons. But all this is in the distant future.

There is a model according to which the final destruction of the Universe can happen tomorrow. It was first proposed by the Moscow physicist M.B. Voloshin, I.Yu. Kobzarev and L.B. Let's perch in 1975. This theory takes into account the peculiarity of vacuum. There are no real particles in it, but their virtual analogues are constantly being born and disappearing. At any moment, tunneling of the vacuum from one state to another can occur, and as a result, space - time and matter with completely different properties (or nothing) will remain.

Vacuum energy is taken into account in the theory of inflationary expansion of the newborn Universe.

Inflationary model of the Universe - hypothesis<#"justify">Scenario No. 4 Giant Sun

At the end of its development, the huge red Sun will swallow the Earth, which will turn into a scorched desert.

The Sun once looked very different than it does today. Billions of years later it will change its appearance again. However, these changes are imperceptible on human time scales. However, the Sun has its own life cycle- the formation of interstellar matter from a cloud, then a period of more or less quiet existence, and then inevitable death.

In five billion years, the Sun will use up all its hydrogen, switch to helium and become 75 percent larger than today.

A few more billion years will pass, and the new Sun will absorb Mercury and Venus - the planets closest to the center of the solar system. And the Earth, floating in the hot atmosphere of the Sun, will leave its orbit and eventually spiral into the crucible of a huge star. It is possible that Mars will be lucky, and for about a billion years a climate will be established there suitable for the origin of life or for its restoration, if it is true that it already existed there several billion years ago.

Scenario No. 5 The end of the entire solar system

The icy planets of the solar system will fly in the darkness around the white dwarf Sun.

The terrible expansion that will happen to the Sun in its red giant stage will bring down the curtain on the stage of earthly life. But it won't last act his existence. The Sun will remain in this state for another billion years. It will begin to feed on helium, and then begin to burn other - increasingly heavier - elements located at greater depths, in the core of the star, devouring layer by layer, shrinking like an onion. When the turn comes to iron, the process of thermonuclear fusion with the release of energy will stop. However, the transformation of elements in the bowels of the star will continue, and quite actively, but now it will occur with the absorption of energy.

During these successive thermonuclear reactions, there will be periods of instability in the Sun, during which its luminosity will change, giving it the appearance of a variable star such as pulsating Cepheid stars. In the final period, the change of phases will accelerate, each subsequent one will be shorter than the previous one. And yet, unlike stars with greater mass, The sun will not end its life instantly, that is, by explosion. The uppermost layers will “peel off” into space, forming a planetary nebula there.

At the center of the solar planetary nebula there will remain a cold core of hydrogen, helium, carbon, oxygen and other heavier elements. Its volume will be comparable to the volume of the Earth, and its density will be millions of times greater than the density of water (in other words, the mass of a cubic centimeter of such a substance will be measured in tons!)

After cooling for billions of years, it will cool to a temperature of 4000 Kelvin, and the process of crystallization will begin in its substance.

Relics of surviving planets will revolve around the small white Sun, most likely these will be Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, whose cold rings evaporate during the red giant phase. And it will come eternal night, during which it will be as dark as the full moon on Earth today, and the Sun will look only slightly brighter than other stars.

Scenario No. 6 The end of the Milky Way in a black hole

The black hole located in the center of the Galaxy will absorb all the stars of the Milky Way into its funnel.

When observing the Milky Way and other distant galaxies, one immediately notices an obvious difference: our star system is relatively calm, while many other galaxies live in constant activity.

Emissions of gases, areas of high intensity star formation, powerful streams of radio waves, X-rays and gamma rays, release huge amount energy - all this gives the galaxies the appearance of nearby stars, when in fact they are billions of light years away from us.

One hypothesis explains the frantic activity of these star systems by giant black holes located at their centers, whose mass is tens of millions of solar masses.

The existence of such a cosmic mega vacuum cleaner, which cannot be seen directly, is confirmed by the vortex phenomena observed by astronomers and the highest temperature differences that occur during the absorption of matter into a black hole and are accompanied by emissions of energy and gas.

Astrophysicists, observing the center of our Universe in various ranges of radio waves, infrared and x-rays, as well as gamma rays and collecting a lot of data, have proposed that there is a black hole at the center of the Milky Way.

Scientists have suggested that in the center of the Milky Way there is an increased concentration of matter, the mass of which is about two million times the mass of the Sun, but the amount of light reaching us from there is disproportionately small. By the way, it is for this reason that some scientists doubt that there really is a huge black hole in the center of the Milky Way. But, on the other hand, such bulky formations, behaving relatively calmly, were found not only in ours, but also in other apparently normal galaxies, for example, in the Andromeda nebula and its satellite M32, recently studied using the Hubble Space Telescope.

Perhaps the black hole was formed as a result of collisions with other galaxies in those distant times when the Universe was still small. But what will happen when she encounters other galaxies, if she ever awakens from her sleep? The answer is disappointing: the black hole will suck in our entire Galaxy.

In this case, the Milky Way faces an unenviable fate - first it will turn into a whirlpool of stars and gas, and then into a tiny region with an infinitely high density.

Conclusion

The Universe is evolving; violent processes have occurred in the past, are occurring now, and will occur in the future. The world is becoming more and more complex, new theories are becoming more complex and appearing. And science does not stand still, new views, hypotheses, teachings appear, since “nature does not reveal its secrets once and for all” (L.A. Seneca).

If our Universe is in danger of death, then perhaps it will be possible in the future to fly to another Universe. From the general theory of relativity it follows the possibility of the existence of space-time tunnels and transition to other Universes.

We know the structure of the Universe in a huge volume of space that takes light billions of years to traverse. But a person’s inquisitive thought seeks to penetrate further. What lies beyond the boundaries of the observable region of the world? Is the Universe infinite in volume? And its expansion - why did it start and will it always continue in the future? What is the origin of the “hidden” mass? And finally, how did intelligent life begin in the Universe? Does it exist anywhere else besides our planet? There are no final and complete answers to these questions yet. The universe is inexhaustible. The thirst for knowledge is also tireless, forcing people to ask more and more new questions about the world and persistently seek answers to them.

List of used literature

1.Vorontsov - Velyaminov B.A. Essays about the Universe. M., 1980. - 672 s.

2.Ksanfomality L. Dark Universe // Science and Life 2005 No. 5. 58-69 p.

.Levin A. The Fates of the Universe // Popular Mechanics 2006 No. 9 40-46 p.

.Levitan E.P. Evolving Universe. M.: Education., 1993. 159 p.

.Perel Yu.G. Development of ideas about the Universe M., 1958. 352 pp.

.Surdin V.G. Darwin and the evolution of the Universe // Ecology and Life 2009 No. 3 4-10 p.

.Shklovsky P.S. Universe, life, mind M.: Nauka 1987. - 320 p.

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The future of the Universe is one of the main questions of cosmology, the answer to which depends, first of all, on such characteristics and properties of the Universe as its mass, energy, average density, and expansion rate.

What do we know about the Universe?

To begin with, we should define the very concept of “Universe,” which has its place both in astronomy and philosophy. In the field of astronomy, the Universe is called the Metagalaxy or simply the astronomical Universe. However, from a theoretical point of view, which is taken into account by most models and scenarios for the development of the Universe, it is a colossal system that goes beyond the limits of possible observation.

One of the most important properties of the Universe, which was discovered relatively recently, is an almost uniform and isotropic expansion, which also turned out to be accelerated. Depending on the duration of this expansion, the history of the Universe can take one of two possible scenarios.

In the first case, the expansion will continue indefinitely, and at the same time the average density of matter in the Universe will rapidly fall, approaching zero. In short, it will all begin with the disintegration of galaxy clusters and end with the division of a proton into quarks.

The second scenario takes into account the postulates of the general theory of relativity (GTR), which states that with a significant increase in the density of matter, space-time is curved. If the expansion does begin to slow down, then most likely at some point it will turn into compression. Then the Universe will begin to contract, and the average density of its matter will rapidly increase. With this course of events, according to general relativity, space-time will gradually bend until the Universe closes on itself, like the surface of an ordinary sphere, but with more dimensions than we are used to imagining.

Cosmological epochs of the Universe

Trying to predict future fate astronomical Universe, scientists have divided its existence into the following stages:

Despite the fact that the matter of the Universe is gradually annihilating, space itself can evolve according to four hypothetical scenarios:

If over time the expansion of the Universe slows down and then turns into compression, then the final stage of its life will be the Big Crunch. As a result, all matter collapses and returns to its original state - singularity.
Another scenario is that the average density of matter in the Universe is precisely determined and is such that the expansion gradually slows down.
The most probable model, due to modern observational results. It implies a uniform expansion of the Universe, by inertia.
The rapid increase in the rate of expansion of the Universe, which will lead our world to the so-called.

There are two views on how the material world arose. Religions attribute to God a leading role in the world order. In particular, the Bible speaks of several days during which God created first light, then water, then the firmament, then living beings - right up to man. Now the Churches claim that “six days” is a metaphorical term, where a day is not equal to a day, but lasts much longer. Another, radically opposite view of the origin of the visible, material world is scientific. The evolution of the Universe, according to scientists' research, began with the Big Bang (also called the Big Bang), which occurred 10-15 billion years ago.

What happened before everything that exists came into existence? Modern astronomy believes that it was compressed to minimum sizes a sphere within which, under the influence of the highest temperatures and pressures, the free movement moved. Everything material, which now fills the boundless space, was compressed within a point tending to zero in magnitude, from which the origin and evolution of the Universe began. It is still unclear what caused the Big Bang. However, this explosion itself led to the expansion of the Universe, and this process continues today. What does it mean? That the same number of material particles occupies more and more volume over time.

Will the material world expand forever, or will someday its expansion in volume slow down and stop altogether, like what we see when a grenade explodes? Perhaps, after this, the evolution of the Universe will stop and be replaced by a stage of “collapsing”, narrowing to the initial point. We are not yet ready to answer this question with certainty. But the picture of the world created by scientists can already describe the successive phases in the growth and transformation of matter. The first era - the hadronic one - lasted only one millionth of a second, but during this time the process of annihilation of antibaryons and baryons occurred, protons and neurons were formed.

The second and third stages of the evolution of the Universe - leptonic and photonic - also lasted only a few seconds. At the end of the second era, a neutrino sea was formed, and the era of photons ended with the separation of matter from antimatter (which occurred due to the annihilation of positrons and electrons). The Universe continued to expand, which led to a decrease in the energy density of particles and photons. The photon stage gave way to the stellar stage, which continues to this day. However, the formation of stars, galaxies and groups of galaxies occurred (and is still occurring) unevenly.

Millions of years passed after the Big Bang, while the simplest particles turned into atoms - mainly hydrogen and helium (these atoms are the main component of the Universe), the atoms united into molecules, which entered into compounds and formed crystals, substances, and mineral rocks. During the stellar era, which at this stage ends the evolution of the Universe, galaxies and planets were formed, and life arose on our Earth. Can we say that the “epic fireworks display” is over and we are standing on cooling coals amid dissipating smoke?

Scientists have concluded that the evolution of the Universe continues. The vortices of a giant accumulation of hydrogen flatten the matter and transform these accumulations into whirlpools. This is how spherical, elliptical and oblate galaxies are born (depending on the speed of rotation of the colossal - one hundred thousand light years - cycle). Our Milky Way also belongs to the latter type of galaxy. Stars form inside galaxies under the pressure of hydrogen clumps. They also go through long stages of evolution: from white-hot supernovae to “red giants”, “white dwarfs” and The same processes occur with our Sun, while the Cosmos continues to expand.

Astronomy

Astrophysics., i. radio astronomy

Marchevsky V.A., Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences

POSSIBLE OPTION FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNIVERSE

Introduction

Until now, only two options for the development of the Universe have been considered: open and closed models of it. In our opinion, another version has a right to exist, if, of course, the assumptions made in the work about the existence of a noticeable flow of energy into the vacuum are confirmed experimentally. Then we can assume that the Universe is not an independent physical system, and, therefore, we can consider the third option. That's what we'll do.

1. Condition for stable dynamic distribution of matter in the Metagalaxy

Let us assume that the Universe initially expanded from one common center. At the same time, a moment came when the forces causing this expansion ceased to act, further movement continued due to inertial forces. Such a moment had to come, otherwise we would not have “Hubble's law.”

In order for a volume element of unit mass on a homogeneous sphere of radius r to leave it, the sum of its potential and kinetic energies must be equal to zero, that is

4 R z V2 3prg 4 2

PrSg, here V is the velocity of the unit mass volume element, p is the average

density of the sphere, G - gravitational constant. This equation can be rewritten in a slightly different form:

V = Нг, Н = 2 (1)

here H is the Hubble constant. Let's call this position dynamic and stable for the element.

2. Possible distributions of matter in the Metagalaxy

In fact, objects located at an arbitrarily chosen distance r from the center, at the moment of termination of the expansion forces, could have velocities both higher and lower than those required according to condition (1).

Objects with velocities greater than (1) moved to the surfaces of other spheres more distant from the center until their velocities began to satisfy condition (1). Due to the fact that faster objects left the sphere of radius Г, its average density decreased, and for objects with velocities less than (1), it also became possible to satisfy relation (1). Thus, after billions of years (if this redistribution has already ended), all objects should have been distributed in space according to relation (1).

It should be noted that objects are currently being observed that can temporarily leave this stable dynamic distribution, for example, exploding galaxies. After the explosion, the parts acquire additional speeds. For example, consider

a position when one part receives an additional impulse in the direction from the center of the Metagalaxy, and the other - towards the center. Then we can apply the previous reasoning to them and show that they will occupy dynamically stable places closer and further from the center of the Metagalaxy in relation to the position that a non-exploded galaxy would have occupied.

As is known, relation (1) can be used for all objects whose speeds are much less than the speed of light. In all other cases, it is necessary to take into account A. Einstein’s theory of relativity. We won't do this. Let us pay attention to the fact that due to the limitation of the speed of real objects by the speed of light, there must be a boundary of the Metagalaxy.

3. Estimated version of the development of the Universe

From the point of view of the behavior of the Metagalaxy near the boundary, we consider two possibilities, one of which, in our opinion, can be realized:

1. If the velocities of objects inside the Metagalaxy and near the boundary are such that their potential and kinetic energies are equal, then the entire Metagalaxy should expand without limit.

2. If the velocities of objects only near the boundary are less than the values indicated above, then after some finite time they must slow down and begin to move back to the center of the Metagalaxy, changing as they move towards the center the value of the potential energy of the sphere whose boundary they intersect. Consequently, they will carry along objects that are located behind the surface of this sphere. Then the quasi-compression of the Metagalaxy should begin, not simultaneously throughout the entire volume, as is now assumed, but from the outer boundary to the center, gradually forcing more and more new objects to change the direction of their movement. It is important that they will pass the central point at different times.

I would like to draw attention to one possibility: if at the beginning of this process some individual objects near the boundary of the Metagalaxy had speeds such that their kinetic energy was greater than or equal to the potential, then they had to overcome this boundary. Such single objects can be observed beyond its border, and the more time has passed since they crossed the border, the farther they should be from it. By observing them, we can estimate the time when they crossed the border, and whether we are in the first cycle of expansion of the Universe or not?

The process of movement of matter must be periodic in nature. As was shown in the work, modern estimates of the density of the Universe correspond to a closed model, then from the law of conservation of energy it follows that objects approaching the center of the Metagalaxy and increasing their speed due to potential energy, while maintaining central symmetry, will fly away from it. The picture of the expansion of the Universe will repeat itself, only for a certain period of time there will be a counter-movement of objects: towards the center and from the center of the Metagalaxy. And as a consequence of this, there will be a possibility that, as a result of inelastic collisions of a small part of them, their kinetic energy will decrease due to transformations into other types of energy.

Such an oscillatory process must occur periodically, passing through the stage of the initial dynamic and equilibrium state: the condition for the distribution of matter in space according to (1) in the Metagalaxy. In this case, there is a possibility that a small part of the galaxies near the boundary may acquire speeds sufficient to overcome this boundary and leave the Metagalaxy. Over time, due to this process and the possibility of collisions during oncoming movements, the maximum radius of periodic oscillations of the Metagalaxy may decrease. This scenario

periodic expansion and quasi-compression of the Metagalaxy is quite real. Then the most interesting results can be obtained by observing the boundary of the Metagalaxy.

Until now, no one has looked for the border of the Metagalaxy, and it has not been found. It is quite possible that quasars observed by astronomers are quite suitable for the role of boundary beacons. The works draw attention to the fact that “the intrinsic density (of quasars) increases with increasing Z much faster than (1 + Z)3 at 0< Z <1 , и резко спадает при Z < 2 . «Хочется процитировать еще одну работу : «Е. Ни и ее коллеги из Гавайского университета обнаружили самую далекую из наблюдаемых когда-либо галактик. Галактика НТМ6А видна благодаря усилению ее изображения гравитационной линзой - скоплением галактик Abel 370, находящихся на луче зрения. До сих пор самым далеким из известных объектов был квазар Z = 6,28 . Галактика НТМ6А имеет Z = 6,56, и поэтому видна только в ИК-диапазоне». Если это действительно единичные объекты за границей Метагалактики, то тогда существует большая вероятность того, что мы живем в периодическом мире.

Conclusion

Nature is economical; it does not always invent new forms, but often uses ready-made ones. Likewise, our model of the Universe is very similar to a globular cluster. It is known that they are very stable and live long enough, therefore, our Universe can exist for a long period of time without going through a phase of compression to a point. This period is tens and perhaps hundreds of times longer than one cycle from expansion to contraction in a closed model of the Universe.

Currently, the backwardness of observational astronomy in the region of metagalactic distances is very noticeable. This is due to the fact that until now there is only one single method for estimating these distances, based on the Doppler effect and Hubble's law. And until this lag is eliminated, theoretical developments can go quite far from the real picture of the world.

List of literature tours

1. Marchevsky V.A. Is there at least one tangible drain of energy into a vacuum in the Universe? Current problems of modern science, No. 1, 2006.

2. Marchevsky V.A. Is the accelerated expansion of the Universe real? in the same room.

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A scientific view of the creation of the world

Until the beginning of the last century, there were only two views on the origin of our Universe. Scientists believed that it was eternal and unchanging, and theologians said that the World was created and it will have an end. The twentieth century, having destroyed much of what was created in previous millennia, was able to provide its answers to most of the questions that occupied the minds of scientists of the past. And perhaps one of the greatest achievements of the past century is to clarify the question of how the Universe in which we live arose and what hypotheses exist about its future.

A simple astronomical fact - the expansion of our Universe - led to a complete revision of all cosmogonic concepts and the development of new physics - the physics of emerging and disappearing worlds. Just 70 years ago, Edwin Hubble discovered that light from more distant galaxies is “redder” than light from closer ones. Moreover, the recession speed turned out to be proportional to the distance from the Earth (Hubble's expansion law). This was discovered thanks to the Doppler effect (the dependence of the wavelength of light on the speed of the light source). Since more distant galaxies appear more “red,” it was assumed that they were moving away at a greater speed. By the way, it is not stars or even individual galaxies that are scattering, but clusters of galaxies. The stars and galaxies closest to us are connected to each other by gravitational forces and form stable structures. Moreover, no matter which direction you look, clusters of galaxies are moving away from the Earth at the same speed, and it may seem that our Galaxy is the center of the Universe, but this is not so. Wherever the observer is, he will see the same picture everywhere - all the galaxies are scattering from him.

But such expansion of matter must have a beginning. This means that all galaxies must have been born at one point. Calculations show that this happened approximately 15 billion years ago. At the moment of such an explosion, the temperature was very high, and a lot of light quanta should have appeared. Of course, over time everything cools down, and quanta scatter throughout the emerging space, but the echoes of the Big Bang should have survived to this day.

The first confirmation of the explosion came in 1964, when American radio astronomers R. Wilson and A. Penzias discovered relict electromagnetic radiation with a temperature of about 3° on the Kelvin scale (270°C). It was this discovery, unexpected for scientists, that convinced them that the Big Bang really took place and at first the Universe was very hot.

The Big Bang theory explained many of the problems facing cosmology. But, unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, it also raised a number of new questions. In particular: What happened before the Big Bang? Why does our space have zero curvature and Euclidean geometry, which is studied in school, is correct? If the Big Bang theory is true, then why is the current size of our Universe so much larger than the 1 centimeter predicted by the theory? Why is the Universe surprisingly homogeneous, while during any explosion the matter scatters in different directions extremely unevenly? What led to the initial heating of the Universe to an unimaginable temperature of more than 10 13 K?

All this indicated that the Big Bang theory was incomplete. For a long time it seemed that it was no longer possible to advance further. Only a quarter of a century ago, thanks to the work of Russian physicists E. Gliner and A. Starobinsky, as well as the American A. Hus, a new phenomenon was described - the ultra-fast inflationary expansion of the Universe. The description of this phenomenon is based on well-studied sections of theoretical physics - Einstein's general theory of relativity and quantum field theory. Today it is generally accepted that just such a period, called “inflation,” preceded the Big Bang.

The essence of inflation

When trying to give an idea of the essence of the initial period of the life of the Universe, we have to operate with such ultra-small and ultra-large numbers that our imagination has difficulty perceiving them. Let's try to use some analogy to understand the essence of the inflation process.

Let's imagine a mountain slope covered with snow, interspersed with various small objects - pebbles, branches and pieces of ice. Someone at the top of this slope made a small snowball and let it roll down the mountain. Moving down, the snowball increases in size, as new layers of snow with all the inclusions stick to it. And the larger the snowball, the faster it will grow. Very soon it will turn from a small snowball into a huge lump. If the slope ends in an abyss, he will fly into it at an ever-increasing speed. Having reached the bottom, the lump will hit the bottom of the abyss and its components will scatter in all directions (by the way, part of the kinetic energy of the lump will be used to heat the environment and the flying snow). Now let us describe the main provisions of the theory using the above analogy. First of all, physicists had to introduce a hypothetical field, which was called “inflaton” (from the word “inflation”). This field filled the entire space (in our case, snow on the slope). Thanks to random fluctuations, it took on different values in arbitrary spatial regions and at different times. Nothing significant happened until a uniform configuration of this field with a size of more than 10 -33 cm was accidentally formed. As for the Universe we observe, in the first moments of its life, it apparently had a size of 10 -27 cm. It is assumed that On such scales, the basic laws of physics known to us today are already valid, so it is possible to predict the further behavior of the system. It turns out that immediately after this, the spatial region occupied by fluctuation (from the Latin fluctuatio “oscillation”, random deviations of observed physical quantities from their average values) begins to increase very quickly in size, and the inflaton field tends to occupy a position in which its energy minimal (the snowball started rolling). This expansion lasts only 10 -35 seconds, but this time is enough for the diameter of the Universe to increase by at least 10 27 times and by the end of the inflationary period our Universe has acquired a size of approximately 1 cm. Inflation ends when the inflaton field reaches a minimum energy there is nowhere to fall further. In this case, the accumulated kinetic energy turns into the energy of particles being born and flying apart, in other words, the Universe is heated. This very moment is called today the Big Bang.

The mountain mentioned above can have a very complex terrain - several different lows, valleys below and all sorts of hills and hummocks. Snowballs (future universes) are continuously born at the top of the mountain due to field fluctuations. Each lump can slide into any of the minima, giving birth to its own universe with specific parameters. Moreover, universes can differ significantly from each other. The properties of our Universe are amazingly adapted for intelligent life to arise in it. Other universes may not have been so lucky.

Once again I would like to emphasize that the described process of the birth of the Universe “from practically nothing” is based on strictly scientific calculations. Nevertheless, any person who first becomes acquainted with the inflation mechanism described above has many questions.

In response to tricky questions

Today our Universe consists of a large number of stars, not to mention the hidden mass. And it may seem that the total energy and mass of the Universe are enormous. And it is completely incomprehensible how all this could fit in the original volume of 10 -99 cm 3. However, in the Universe there is not only matter, but also a gravitational field. It is known that the energy of the latter is negative and, as it turned out, in our Universe the gravitational energy exactly compensates for the energy contained in particles, planets, stars and other massive objects. Thus, the law of conservation of energy is perfectly fulfilled, and the total energy and mass of our Universe are practically equal to zero. It is this circumstance that partly explains why the nascent Universe did not immediately turn into a huge black hole after its appearance. Its total mass was completely microscopic, and at first there was simply nothing to collapse. And only at later stages of development did local clumps of matter appear, capable of creating such gravitational fields near themselves that even light could not escape. Accordingly, the particles from which stars are “made” simply did not exist at the initial stage of development. Elementary particles began to be born during the period of development of the Universe when the inflaton field reached a minimum of potential energy and the Big Bang began.

The region occupied by the inflaton field grew at a speed significantly greater than the speed of light, but this does not at all contradict Einstein’s theory of relativity. Only material bodies cannot move faster than light, and in this case the imaginary, immaterial boundary of the region where the Universe was born was moving (an example of superluminal movement is the movement of a light spot on the surface of the Moon during the rapid rotation of the laser illuminating it).

Moreover, the environment did not at all resist the expansion of the region of space covered by the increasingly rapidly growing inflaton field, since it did not seem to exist for the emerging World. General relativity states that the physical picture an observer sees depends on where he is and how he moves. So, the picture described above is valid for an “observer” located inside this area. Moreover, this observer will never know what is happening outside the region of space where he is located. Another “observer” looking at this area from the outside will not detect any expansion at all. At best, he will see only a small spark, which, according to his watch, will disappear almost instantly. Even the most sophisticated imagination refuses to perceive such a picture. And yet it appears to be true. At least, this is what modern scientists think, drawing confidence from the already discovered laws of Nature, the correctness of which has been tested many times.

It must be said that this inflaton field continues to exist and fluctuate even now. But only we, internal observers, are unable to see this - after all, for us, a small area has turned into a colossal Universe, the boundaries of which not even light can reach.

So, immediately after the end of inflation, a hypothetical internal observer would see the Universe filled with energy in the form of material particles and photons. If all the energy that an internal observer could measure is converted into particle mass, then we get approximately 10 80 kg. The distances between particles increase rapidly due to general expansion. The gravitational forces of attraction between particles reduce their speed, so the expansion of the Universe gradually slows down after the end of the inflationary period.

These dangerous antiparticles

Immediately after birth, the Universe continued to grow and cool. At the same time, cooling occurred, among other things, due to the banal expansion of space. Electromagnetic radiation is characterized by a wavelength that can be related to temperature; the longer the average wavelength of the radiation, the lower the temperature. But if space expands, then the distance between the two “humps” of the wave will increase, and, consequently, its length. This means that in an expanding space the radiation temperature should decrease. This is confirmed by the extremely low temperature of modern cosmic microwave background radiation.

As it expands, the composition of the matter filling our world also changes. Quarks combine into protons and neutrons, and the Universe turns out to be filled with elementary particles already familiar to us - protons, neutrons, electrons, neutrinos and photons. Antiparticles are also present. The properties of particles and antiparticles are almost identical. It would seem that their number should be the same immediately after inflation. But then all particles and antiparticles would be mutually destroyed and there would be no building material left for galaxies and ourselves. And here we were lucky again. Nature made sure that there were slightly more particles than antiparticles. It is thanks to this small difference that our world exists. And cosmic microwave background radiation is precisely the consequence of annihilation (that is, mutual destruction) of particles and antiparticles. Of course, at the initial stage the radiation energy was very high, but due to the expansion of space and, as a consequence, the cooling of the radiation, this energy quickly decreased. Now the energy of the cosmic microwave background radiation is approximately ten thousand times (10 4 times) less than the energy contained in massive elementary particles.

Gradually, the temperature of the Universe dropped to 10 10 K. At this point, the age of the Universe was approximately 1 minute. Only now protons and neutrons were able to combine into nuclei of deuterium, tritium and helium. This happened thanks to nuclear reactions, which people had already studied well by exploding thermonuclear bombs and operating nuclear reactors on Earth. Therefore, we can confidently predict how many and what elements may appear in such a nuclear boiler. It turned out that the currently observed abundance of light elements agrees well with calculations. This means that the physical laws known to us are the same throughout the observable part of the Universe and were so already in the first seconds after the appearance of our world. Moreover, about 98% of helium existing in nature was formed in the first seconds after the Big Bang.

The birth of galaxies

Immediately after birth, the Universe went through an inflationary period of development - all distances rapidly increased (from the point of view of an internal observer). However, the energy density at different points in space cannot be exactly the same; some inhomogeneities are always present. Suppose that in some area the energy is slightly greater than in neighboring ones. But since all sizes are growing rapidly, then the size of this area should also grow. After the inflationary period ends, this expanded region will have slightly more particles than the surrounding area, and its temperature will be slightly higher.

Realizing the inevitability of the emergence of such areas, supporters of the inflation theory turned to experimenters: “it is necessary to detect temperature fluctuations,” they stated. And in 1992 this wish was fulfilled. Almost simultaneously, the Russian satellite Relikt-1 and the American COBE discovered the required fluctuations in the temperature of the cosmic microwave background radiation. As already mentioned, the modern Universe has a temperature of 2.7 K, and the temperature deviations found by scientists from the average were approximately 0.00003 K. It is not surprising that such deviations were difficult to detect before. Thus, the inflation theory received further confirmation.

With the discovery of temperature fluctuations comes another exciting opportunity to explain how galaxies form. After all, in order for gravitational forces to compress matter, an initial embryo is needed - an area with increased density. If matter is distributed uniformly in space, then gravity, like Buridan's donkey, does not know in which direction it should act. But it is precisely areas with excess energy that generate inflation. Now the gravitational forces know where to act, namely the denser areas created during the inflationary period. Under the influence of gravity, these initially slightly denser regions will be compressed, and it is from them that stars and galaxies will form in the future.

Happy present

The current moment in the evolution of the Universe is extremely well adapted for life, and it will last for many billions of years. Stars will be born and die, galaxies will rotate and collide, and clusters of galaxies will fly further and further away from each other. Therefore, humanity has plenty of time for self-improvement. True, the very concept of “now” for such a vast Universe as ours is poorly defined. For example, the life of quasars observed by astronomers, which are 10 x 14 billion light years away from the Earth, is exactly 10 x 14 billion years away from our “now”.

Today, scientists are able to explain most of the properties of our Universe, from the moment of 10 -42 seconds to the present and even beyond. They can also trace the formation of galaxies and predict the future of the Universe with some certainty. Nevertheless, a number of “minor” unknowns still remain. This is primarily the essence of hidden mass (dark matter) and dark energy. In addition, there are many models that explain why our Universe contains many more particles than antiparticles, and I would like to finally decide on the correct model.

As the history of science teaches us, it is usually “small imperfections” that open up further paths of development, so that future generations of scientists will certainly have something to do. In addition, deeper questions are also already on the agenda of physicists and mathematicians. Why is our space three-dimensional? Why do all the constants in nature seem to be “adjusted” so that intelligent life arises? And what is gravity? Scientists are already trying to answer these questions.

And of course, let's leave room for surprises. We must not forget that such fundamental discoveries as the expansion of the Universe, the presence of relict photons and vacuum energy were made, one might say, by accident and were not expected by the scientific community.

Vacuum energy origin and consequences

What awaits our Universe in the future? Just a few years ago, theorists had only two options in this regard. If the energy density in the Universe is low, then it will expand forever and gradually cool down. If the energy density is greater than a certain critical value, then the expansion stage will be replaced by a compression stage. The universe will shrink in size and heat up. This means that one of the key parameters determining the development of the Universe is the average energy density. So, astrophysical observations carried out before 1998 indicated that the energy density was approximately 30% of the critical value. And inflationary models predicted that the energy density should be equal to the critical one. This did not bother apologists of inflation theory much. They brushed aside their opponents and said that the missing 70% “will somehow be found.” And they really were found. This is a big victory for inflation theory, although the energy found was so strange that it raised more questions than answers.
It seems that the dark energy we are looking for is the energy of the vacuum itself.

In the minds of people not involved in physics, a vacuum is “when there is nothing” – no matter, no particles, no fields. However, this is not entirely true. The standard definition of vacuum is a state in which there are no particles. Since energy is contained precisely in particles, then, as almost everyone, including scientists, reasonably believed, there are no particles and there is no energy. This means that the vacuum energy is zero. This whole benign picture collapsed in 1998, when astronomical observations showed that the recession of galaxies slightly deviates from Hubble's law. The shock caused by these observations among cosmologists did not last long. Very quickly, articles began to be published explaining this fact. The simplest and most natural of them turned out to be the idea of the existence of positive vacuum energy. After all, a vacuum, after all, simply means the absence of particles, but why can only particles have energy? The detected dark energy turned out to be surprisingly uniformly distributed in space. Such homogeneity is difficult to achieve, because if this energy were contained in some unknown particles, gravitational interaction would force them to gather into grandiose conglomerates, similar to galaxies. Therefore, the energy hidden in vacuum space very elegantly explains the structure of our world.

However, other, more exotic, world order options are also possible. For example, the Quintessence model, the elements of which were proposed by the Soviet physicist A.D. Dolgov in 1985, suggests that we are still sliding down the very hill that was mentioned at the beginning of our story. Moreover, we have been rolling for a very long time, and there is no end in sight to this process. The unusual name, borrowed from Aristotle, denotes a certain “new essence” designed to explain why the world works the way it does and not otherwise.

Today, there are significantly more options for answering the question about the future of our Universe. And they depend significantly on which theory explaining hidden energy is correct. Let us assume that the simplest explanation is true, in which the vacuum energy is positive and does not change with time. In this case, the Universe will never shrink and we will not be in danger of overheating and the Big Bang. But all good things come at a price. In this case, as calculations show, we will never be able to reach all the stars in the future. Moreover, the number of galaxies visible from Earth will decrease, and in 10 x 20 billion years, humanity will only have a few neighboring galaxies at its disposal, including our Milky Way, as well as neighboring Andromeda. Humanity will no longer be able to increase quantitatively, and then we will have to deal with its qualitative component. As a consolation, we can say that several hundred billion stars that will be accessible to us in such a distant future is also a lot.

However, will we need stars? 20 billion years is a long time. After all, in just a few hundred million years, life evolved from trilobites to modern humans. So our distant descendants may be even more different from us in appearance and capabilities than we are from trilobites. What does the even more distant future promise for them, according to the forecasts of modern scientists? It is clear that stars will “die” in one way or another, but new ones will also be formed. This process is also not endless; in about 10–14 years, according to scientists, only faintly luminous objects will remain in the Universe: white and dark dwarfs, neutron stars and black holes. Almost all of them will also die in 10 37 years, having exhausted all their energy reserves. By this point, only black holes will remain, having absorbed all other matter. What can destroy a black hole? Any of our attempts to do this only increases its mass. But “nothing lasts forever under the moon.” It turns out that black holes slowly emit particles. This means that their mass gradually decreases. All black holes should also disappear in about 10,100 years. After this, only elementary particles will remain, the distance between which will be much greater than the size of the modern Universe (about 10 90 times) - after all, all this time the Universe has been expanding! And, of course, there will remain vacuum energy, which will absolutely dominate the Universe.

By the way, the properties of such a space were first studied by W. de Sitter back in 1922. So our descendants will have to either change the physical laws of the Universe or move to other universes. Now it seems incredible, but I want to believe in the power of humanity, no matter how it, humanity, looks in such a distant future. Because he has plenty of time. By the way, it is possible that even now we, without knowing it, are creating new universes. In order for a new universe to arise in a very small region, it is necessary to initiate an inflationary process, which is only possible at high energy densities. But experimenters have been creating such regions for a long time by colliding particles in accelerators And although these energies are still very far from inflationary, the probability of creating a universe at an accelerator is no longer zero. Unfortunately, we are the same “remote observer” for whom the lifetime of this “man-made” universe is too short, and we cannot penetrate into it and see what is happening there...

Possible scenarios for the development of our world
1. A pulsating model of the Universe, in which, after a period of expansion, a period of compression begins and everything ends with a Big Bang
2. A universe with a strictly adjusted average density, exactly equal to the critical one. In this case, our world is Euclidean, and its expansion is slowing down all the time
3. Uniformly expanding universe due to inertia. It was precisely in favor of such an open model of the world that, until recently, data on calculating the average density of our Universe testified
4. A world expanding at an ever-increasing speed. The latest experimental data and theoretical research indicate that the Universe is moving away faster and faster, and despite the Euclidean nature of our world, most of the galaxies in the future will be inaccessible to us. And the blame for such a strange structure of the world is that same dark energy, which today is associated with some internal energy of the vacuum that fills all space

Sergey Rubin, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences