This post is based on material from my book,  Unraveling the Universe’s Mysteries, 2012, Louis A. Del Monte (available at Amazon http://amzn.to/Zo1TGn)

At the turn of the Twentieth Century, science held that the universe was eternal and static. This meant it had no beginning. Nor would it ever end. In other words, the universe was in “steady state.” At the beginning of the Twentieth Century, as I mentioned above, telescopes were crude and unable to focus on other galaxies. In addition, no theories of the universe were causing science to doubt the current dogma of a steady-state universe. All of that was about to change.

In 1916, Albert Einstein developed his general theory of relativity. It was termed “general” because it applied to all frames of reference, not only frames at rest or moving at a constant velocity (inertial frames). The general theory of relativity predicted that the universe was either expanding or contracting. This should have been a pivotal clue that the current scientific view of the universe as eternal and static might be wrong. However, Einstein’s paradigm of an eternal and static universe was so strong, he disregarded his own results. He quickly reformulated the equations incorporating a “cosmological constant.” With this new mathematical expression plugged into the equations, the equations of general relativity yielded the answer Einstein believed was right. The universe was in a steady-state. This means it was neither expanding nor contracting. The world of science accepted this, and continued entrenched in its belief of a steady-state universe. However, as telescopes began to improve, this scientific theory was destined to be shattered.

In 1929, Edwin Hubble, using the new Mt. Wilson 100-inch telescope, discovered the universe was expanding. In time, other astronomers confirmed Hubble’s discovery. This forced Einstein to call the cosmological constant his “greatest blunder.” This completely shattered the steady-state theory of the universe. In fact, this discovery was going to pave the way to an even greater discovery, the Big Bang theory.

The Big Bang theory holds that the universe started 13.8 billion years ago as an infinitely dense energy point that expanded suddenly to create the universe. This is an excellent example of why the Big Bang theory belongs to the class of theories referred to as “cosmogonies” (theories that suggest the universe had a beginning). The Big Bang is widely documented in numerous scientific works, and is widely held as scientific fact by the majority of the scientific community.

However, what gave birth to the Big Bang? Where did the initial energy come from?

To unravel this mystery, we will start with an unusual phenomenon observed in the laboratory, namely spontaneous particle production or “virtual particles,” which are particles that form in a laboratory vacuum, apparently coming from nothing. This is a scientific fact, and there is a laundry list that documents virtual particles are real. Some physicists call this spontaneous particle production.

The best-known proponent of the idea that a quantum fluctuation gave birth to the energy of the Big Bang is Canadian-American theoretical physicist, Lawrence Maxwell Krauss. In the simplest terms, Dr. Krauss ascribes the creation of the universe to a quantum fluctuation (i.e., a quantum fluctuation results when a point in space experiences a temporary change in energy), similar to how virtual particles gain existence.

I found Dr. Krauss’ hypothesis convincing, especially in light of what we observe regarding virtual particles. However, one intriguing aspect about virtual particles is that we sometimes observe their occurrence in matter-antimatter pairs. This raised a question. Why would the Big Bang “particle” be a singularity? In this context, we can define a “singularity” as an infinitely energy-dense particle. Numerous observations about virtual particles suggest a “duality.” A “duality,” in this context, would refer to an infinitely dense energy particle pair (one matter particle, and the other an antimatter particle). How would all this play out?

First, we need to postulate a super-universe, one capable of quantum fluctuations. Cosmologists call the super-universe the “Bulk.” The Bulk is “empty” space, which gives existence to infinitely energy-dense matter-antimatter virtual particles. These collide and initiate the Big Bang. If this view of reality is true, it makes the multiverse concept more plausible. Other infinitely energy-dense matter-antimatter particles continually pop in and out of existence in the Bulk, similar to the way that virtual matter-antimatter particles do in the laboratory. When this occurs in the Bulk, a collision between the particles initiates a Big Bang. Therefore, considering the billions of galaxies in the universe, there may be billions of universes in the Bulk.

I have termed this theory the Big Bang Duality, and I discuss it fully in my book, Unraveling the Universe’s Mysteries (2012), available on Amazon (http://amzn.to/Zo1TGn).