The Universe Revealed

Singularity

Singularity

There are several versions of a singularity. There are mathematical singularities in geometry and algebra as well as in several kinds of mathematical analysis. There is also the singularity event in which computers take over. And then we get to the scientific singularities that occur in climate, mechanical systems, density of states of matter, and the one that we will discuss here: a gravitational singularity.

A gravitational singularity is what's supposed to be that which caused the Big Bang. It's a location where the gravitational field is infinite. This concept derives from mathematical singularities where equations of physics have a mass term that increased and becomes infinite. Examples of this are: the Ultraviolet catastrophe where an ideal black body at thermal equilibrium emits radiation at all frequencies at energies that increase to infinity. Another is Renormalization. This is quantum physics dilemma in which results from an infinity of scales. Another is the Larmor formula when it's used with the hydrogen atom instability.

Basically, the singularity connected to the Big Bang theory involves a tiny point that has infinite mass. It's the same problem physicists run into when describing a black hole. However, there is more than one kind of singularity in this case: curvature, conical and naked. The latter falls under cosmic censorship. Ha, ha! A naked singularity would be a black hole without its event horizon. No one knows if that's even possible.

A curvature singularity is where spacetime is curved around the singularity. What the spacetime would look like depends on rather the singularity is spinning or not.

A conical singularity is what its name suggests. Spacetime is funneled into a conical shape with the singularity being at the tip of the cone.

There is also a possibility that singularities don't exist. This is based on the loop quantum gravity theorem. This theorem predicts that space is granular, and it also says that there is a point to which gravity cannot increase further, which would eliminate the idea of infinite gravity. This may have merit because the gravity of a black hole, although very powerful, is not infinite. It's just concentrated to the point at which light cannot escape. But what about the possibility that the speed of light is not the same near a black hole as it is in normal space. Maybe the space is so compressed it acts like a high-density material, decreasing the speed of light.

Since the Big Bang produced a finite universe it would suggest that the singularity that created it was not infinite to start with. Even if the universe were infinite, whatever that means, it would not prove that the singularity was infinite.

The problem with calling a singularity, or anything for that matter, as being infinite is that it cannot be mathematically defined. My problem is how it would actually form or where it could come from.

First of all, cosmologists say that a singularity bends space to the breaking point and that Einstein's theory of gravity fails under this circumstance. Maybe Einstein's theory doesn't apply to a singularity. Maybe gravity has to be modified. My take on this is that if the theory doesn't work change the theory.

In order to form a singularity one must squash matter down beyond the Chandrasekhar limit. Think about this way. When a star goes supernova its core collapses and the electrons combines with protons to create neutrons. The neutrons are squashed together forming a neutron star. If the core is large it will collapse into a black hole when the collapse exceeds Planck's length. What does this mean? It means that gravity has compressed the core material beyond anything that we're familiar with.

My guess is that the neutrons are further split into quarks and these are no longer like the matter as we know it. Maybe the singularity is a bunch of compressed quarks. You end up with quark pie, and that would be dense beyond belief.

At this point in time, quantum physicists and cosmologists are clueless as to what a singularity would look like.

Thanks for reading.