I've heard for awhile now that a lot of physicists think that time was created in the big bang as a dimension (just like space). When I try to look this up online though i just get on old lecture from Stephen Hawking about why that may or may not be true. I was wondering if anyone had any sources to back up the claim that there was no time before the Big Bang or at least something that suggests its probability.
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1$\begingroup$ Probably relevant reading: physics.stackexchange.com/questions/132794/… $\endgroup$– Kyle KanosMay 6, 2017 at 19:23
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1$\begingroup$ Also related: How can something happen when time does not exist? $\endgroup$– John RennieMay 6, 2017 at 19:31
1 Answer
We know nothing about what really happened at or before the Big Bang, even when the word 'before' may make no sense.
There is some ongoing work about pre Big Bang physics. It's very tentative and hypothetical. Some of what I've seen involves M-Branes, a string theory type approach, such as two of those colliding and forming something which was what we see as the Big Bang. There's also a model where it's sort of a Big Bounce from a collapsing universe, maybe there there would be time unitl the Planck epoch (Planck epoch is around sizes less than $10^{-35}$ cms, where space and time may not have emerged yet). There are other hypotheticals of some model pre Big Bang that led to a Big Bang type effect. Whether time makes any sense then depends on those models.
Google pre Big Bang cosmology. Most popular articles are worthless, just look for some physics ones.
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$\begingroup$ If we know nothing about pre big bang cosmology, why would most popular articles be worthless? Are you implying that we actually do know something? $\endgroup$– maccoMay 6, 2017 at 20:44
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$\begingroup$ We have some hypothetical models being researched. When somebody mentions something cute for the public the popular articles may use it. But they have no idea whether that hypothetical is scientifically reasonable or not. So, we don't know about pre Big Bang, but we do know about reason, logic and ridiculous articles. If not, the scientific study of pre Big Bang would not make it into any scientific journals. You need to understand how science work to understand this point. Obviously whether worthless or not is my opinion, and probably that of most scientists. $\endgroup$– Bob BeeMay 7, 2017 at 1:01