From: "JACK L. URETSKY (C) 1996; HEP DIV., ARGONNE NATIONAL LAB, ARGONNE, IL 60439" <JLU@hep.anl.gov>
Date: Fri, 14 Feb 1997 19:05:30 -0600 (CST)
Hi all-
Donald Collins asks:
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A discussion has ensued, with my encouragement, in astronomy class about
the early universe. If all the universe was in the singularity at the
Big Bang, wouldn't this singularity be a Super Black Hole? How would the
universe erupt out of this super black hole? My answer is that at the
Big Bang, all matter was energy, hence wasn't trapped-in nor could have
formed a black hole. Is this correct?
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I partially agree with Leigh's response, although he seems to
assume conservation of energy of the universe; I don't know why that
needs to be true.
The universe would emphatically not be a "super black hole".
A black hole needs a "universe" to be in (spacetime and all that good
stuff). It is not at all clear what the environment that preceded the
big bang consisted of? Could it be characterized by a spacetime
dimensionality? A temperature? A vacuum?
It is also not clear that the universe was in a singularity
at the beginning. The notion of singularity (as at the center of a
black hole) is classical. Possibly quantum mechanics forbids the
existence of a "starting singularity".
I think that the best that can be done today is to push the
beginning back to t=10^(-43) seconds. But then one must ask, "Seconds
after what?" That's the question.
Regards,
Jack