Scientists believe experiments at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland could prove that the universe had no singular starting point.
According to a report in The Telegraph, the detection of miniature black holes by the LHC could show that the Big Bang did not happen.
It could also prove the existence of parallel universes.
If miniature black holes are found at a certain energy level, it could prove the controversial theory of “rainbow gravity”.
This suggests that the universe stretches back into time infinitely with no singular point where it started, and no Big Bang.
The theory was postulated to reconcile Einstein’s theory of general relativity – which deals with very large objects – and quantum mechanics, which looks at the tiniest building blocks of the universe.
It takes its name from a suggestion that gravity’s effect on the cosmos is felt differently by varying wavelengths of light.
The huge amounts of energy needed to make “rainbow gravity” would mean that the early universe was very different.
One result would be that if time is retraced backward, the universe gets denser, approaching an infinite density but never quite reaching it.
The effect of rainbow gravity is small for objects like the Earth, but it is significant and measurable for black holes.
It could be detected by the Large Hadron Collider if it picks up or creates black holes within the particle accelerator.
Dr Mir Faizal told Phys.org: “We have calculated the energy at which we expect to detect these mini black holes in gravity’s rainbow [a new theory]. If we do detect mini black holes at this energy, then we will know that both gravity’s rainbow and extra dimensions are correct.”
The LHC was to be restarted this week after a two year break.
But that could be delayed for weeks after a short circuit was detected in one of its electromagnets.
When the 27km long accelerator is fired up, it will smash protons together at nearly double the energy that was used to find the Higgs Boson.
Sources
- The Telegraph
- BBC
- Image: BBC
News category: World.