The Big Crunch Hypothesis Replaces Dark Energy

Introduction 

String Theory 

In the desire to discovering how the universe will come to an end after reconciling the Big Bang theory being the foundation of the universe, the string theory is advanced to trace the universe before big Bang. String theory advances an argument that there might be more than one universe. It is in this postulation that the big bang is attributed to being the collision of two universes to form the current one or the separation of a universe into two (Lust & Theisen, 1989) . Since the universe , according to the string theorists, is headed for a freeze in billions of years, the string theory advances the possibility of existence of a warm hole that could link one universe to another, hence provide an escape route to the impending tragic freezing of the universe. 

Dark energy and dark matter 

The question about the gravitational influence over the universe and its dynamics has been recently attributed to the presence of dark matter in the universe. First, it is established that besides the composition of the ordinary particles in the universe, dark energy forms up to 74% of the universe (Lust & Theisen, 1989). To this extent, it bears a great influence upon the gravity within the universe leading to the inevitable expansion evidenced in the universe today: the same being attributed to dark energy. Nevertheless, the existence of dark matter has come under close scrutiny in recent times, as this force is not one that can be quantified, identified or measured. It almost appears as a mythical and supernatural force operating in the cosmos, which cannot be scientifically backed. 

Big Crunch Hypothesis 

The theory is premised on the prevailing cosmology over the formation of the universe is attributed to the Big Bang. It is in this spirit that due to gravitational influence in space that the universe has been expanding and based on the presumption that the universe has sufficient gravitational force to hold itself together, the expansion may predictably diminish causing the universe to fall on itself, hence a subsequent cataclysmic effect (Goodstein, 1997). This is the big crunch. 

Background information 

Based on the effect of gravity, it is believed that the universe may not continually expand forever. The effect of gravity is likely to negate the expansion of the universe, reversing it and leading to the big crunch – a situation in which the effect of the big bang is reversed and time ceases to exist. Predictions show that this event is likely to happen sooner rather than later, although this time predictions are still in the order of billions of years. 

The question of whether gravity has an effect on the universal expansion of space is a matter that has haunted scientists for the longest time, bringing about the eventualities of the reversal of the big bang. The other alternative is infinite expansion, which would lead to the stars burning out, thereby occasioning the prevalence of dark matter over the entire universe. Where the dark matter prevails, the stars would burn out and the universe would be covered in either fiery balls or ice-covered planets. The discovery of dark matter seemed to answer the question of infinite expansion towards destruction (Khoury, Ovrut, Seiberg, Steinhardt, & Turok, 2002). Dark matter is a force that pulls the universe infinitely outwards overcoming the force of gravity. Therefore, dark matter would ultimately pull the universe to its doom, especially because it is accelerating the expansion of the universe at a force greater than that of gravity. It would therefore be expected that the effect of dark matter would pull out the universe so far out that stars would lose their gravitational pull towards each other and eventually lose touch with each other. 

Nevertheless, the critical understanding of what dark matter is remains a mystery to many scientists. However, Nemanja Kaloper, a physicist from the University of California alongside his counterparts Davis and Antonio Padilla from the University of Nottingham have a model suggesting that dark matter will only dominate the universe for a short time before a turnaround leading to the collapse of the universe – the big crunch. This turnaround will be as a result of the change of strengths in forces being exerted on the universe, which would cause the reversal of the pulling effect of dark matter. According to the physicists, the collapse is imminent as the cosmic acceleration proceeds currently (Horowitz & Polchinski, 2002). This event can be compared to the exertion of outward forces on a rubber band. With accelerated expansion outward, which is stronger than the ability for the rubber band holding itself together, the effect would be the destruction of the rubber band. On a much larger scale, the universe and the planets and stars therein would thus experience a reformation process, which is the effect of the big crunch. 

Replacing Dark Energy 

The Big Bang theory places its belief that after close to 6 billion years of creation, the universe would slow down in its expansion, and defy all laws of physics to become larger as well as accelerate. Nevertheless, an object in a closed space that is slowing down is eventually expected to slow down and move towards collapse, as would be the case with spinning a coin. Therefore, moving towards a cosmological constant is a heavily contested means of approaching the interpretation of cosmological events since the universe is not stable. This has been witnessed through the collision of galaxies. Therefore, the universe appears to moving towards higher instability, otherwise known as the big crunch. 

Figure 1 : Pictorial Presentation of Big Crunch 

Dark matter has been described in some schools of thought as the modern version of epicycles. Epicycles astronomers held on to the belief of an earth-centered solar system, which supported that the earth was the center of the solar system, as propounded by Ptolemy. In this theory, the sun would revolve around the earth in every conceivable direction to explain away discrepancies that arose with their theory against mounting evidence against the validity of the theory. As a result, the sun had epicycles explaining near mythical movements around the earth so as to support the earth-centered solar system theory. Dark energy and matter can be said to be the equivalent of these epicycles. 

Another fact requiring close investigation is that of the Hubble Constant, which measures the rate at which the universe is expanding so as to give a timeline for the occurrence of the big crunch. Nonetheless, the Hubble Constant is not a constant as it keeps changing every time it is measured, thereby not giving a clear indication of the needed information. Furthermore, the Hubble Constant has never measured the theoretical number, which is supposed to determine the speed at which the universe is expanding. The reason behind this could be that the universe has already begun its contraction towards collapse. For the purpose of observation, the Hubble Constant has been measured severally with different values being obtained. The least margin of error was 2.4%, which was still too high. Other observations found a margin of error as high as 11%, showing that the universe was contracting at 67 kilometers per second (Joseph, 2017). Nevertheless, this constant has consistently been under scrutiny, as it has not been successfully observed through a scientific method, which would then establish it. 

Moreover, if one considers unique occurrences present within the universe such as excessive gravity, clamping galaxies and missing matter among others, there is the possible existence of a universe in collapse, thereby leading to abnormal occurrences. This is because a universe in expansion should be moving away from the center point in the universe, with the same speed, along predictable trajectories. However, this is not the case, as galaxies are not moving away from the same point at the same speed. Instead, galaxies are moving in the wrong direction with others orbiting each other or clumping together or colliding – characteristics suggesting a collapsing cosmos. This is not the trend expected in an ever-expanding cosmos. On the other hand, the theory of dark matter has been dismissed as it claims to the supernatural, where dark forces are at work to cause the universe’s misbehavior. A truly scientific approach would expect that a slowing universe would be expected to begin its collapse shortly after it comes to a stop. 

The big bang theory, which forms the basis for the existence of dark matter, predicts that the universe is 8 billion years – only 5 billion years younger than the Milky Way. In theory then, no stars should exist that are older than 13 billion years, or rather 13 billion light-years away. Yet the Hubble has identified fully formed galaxies existing at this horizon. New creation is not seen beyond this point, only existing galaxies regardless of how far scientists look. Additionally, the big bang theory fails to account for various masses in the observable universe, including phenomena such as abundant helium, different galaxy distribution and colliding galaxies. 

Nevertheless, a collapsing universe accounts for all these occurrences. At this age, the universe is expected to be collapsing according to the big crunch theory (Khoury, Ovrut, Seiberg, Steinhardt, & Turok, 2002). This is signaled by the formation of collapsed singularities where countless stars orbit, with the formation of black holes at their center. Stars closest to the black holes are sucked up to their destruction (Horowitz & Polchinski, 2002). The reason for the expected difference in the Hubble Constant is the different proximities of stars to black holes, thereby having different rates of destruction. Additionally, the missing masses of this universe are most likely located within these singularities, thereby not being detected by the telescopes. This further explains the possibility of an impending universal collapse. 

Heat from the Big Bang 

Within seconds of the big bang, the temperature of the cosmos standing at the excesses of 10 32 Kelvin cooled to 2.725K, the normal temperature of the cosmos. Two theories exist for the explanation of where the heat went: (1) it was swallowed by black hole singularities, or (2) there was an external energy source, which gave out the cold in exchange for the heat. A case example of this occurrence could be seen in VIRGOHI21, which swallowed adjacent stars and pulled up to 2000 galaxies within it, creating a galaxy-in-mass singularity (Joseph, 2017). Eradinus is also another phenomenon in outer space bearing the gravity of millions of galaxies. Having swallowed entire surrounding galaxies, the singularity sits in nothingness and has swallowed all gas, light and radiation of surrounding galaxies (Shahalam, Pacif, & Myrzakulov, 2016). The gravitation pull of the Eradinus is so strong that even light cannot escape, thereby bringing out the image of a super-massive black hole. With these phenomena in mind, one considers this against the theory of an ever-expanding cosmos pulled out by dark matter, but these are not consistent (Joseph, 2017). However, the observations are amicable with the views of a collapsing universe. 

Mathematical Consideration 

A mathematical description of the formation of a singularity can be given in ideal environments as described in the above theoretical scenarios. The big crunch is considered to be the end of evolution in the string theory, expressed by the mathematical presentation: 

 , where α = α / cos t and f remains unchanged. 

When α blows up to  , this shows that the crunch singularity has hit its boundary. 

Consider the derivation of the Friedman equation, which is the equation explaining the expansion of the earth. The expansion is obtained by finding kinetic and potential energy from gravity for a test particle expanding uniformly with a mass density maintaining the conservation of energy: 

Rom Gauss’ Law, we consider a particle with mass m , the mass of force-exerting material: 

Force, F =  = 

GPE, V =  = 

KE, T = 

If energy conservation is given by U = T + V, and U is a constant 

U =  -  , and r = ax , then 

U =  -  , 

If this value is multiplied by the reciprocal of T, which is  , then this is the equation formed: 

 = (  -  , 

Substituting kc 2 with  , then 

(  =  -  . 

This is the Friedmann equation. Nevertheless, as seen above, the Friedmann equation, which shows that the universe is expanding, is not giving the same results when measured. As a result, this equation has not satisfied the fact that the universe is expanding, thereby favoring the hypothesis of the big crunch. 

Conclusion 

A large number of individuals believe that the universe was formed as a result of a big bang. If a scientific method is applied, then it would follow that stretching would cause evenly spaced and linearly expanding galaxies as opposed to clumping and crashing galaxies. Moreover, measures from the Hubble should be identical as they are measuring a linear expansion phenomenon. Dark matter would be non-existent, thereby allowing the universe to continue expanding. Again, dark matter would further stop the formation of matter, including molecules and atoms. Observational data, which includes the formation of singularities and stars, refutes the existence of dark energy driving the collapse of the universe. 

In essence, the universe is not expanding and stars accelerating. There is no stretch force being exerted on space due to a dark energy, which is immeasurable, undetectable and incomprehensible. Instead, the observable data points to the collapse of the universe and acceleration towards doom. As based on assertion of quantum physics, once the singularity is formed as a result of the collapse, the universe would implode and create and anti-matter, which will go through the same process – expand then collapse – thereby recreating itself until infinity. 

References 

Goodstein, D. (1997). The big crunch. Eos, 78(32) , 329-334. 

Horowitz, G. T., & Polchinski, J. (2002). Instability of spacelike and null orbifold singularities. Physical Review D, 66(10) , 103512. 

Joseph, G. (2017). The Sky Is Falling: The Universe is Collapsing in a Big Crunch. Cosmology . 

Khoury, J., Ovrut, B. A., Seiberg, N., Steinhardt, P. J., & Turok, N. (2002). (2002). From big crunch to big bang. Physical Review D, 65(8) , 086007. 

Lust, D., & Theisen, S. (1989). Lectures on string theory. New York: Springer-Verlag New York Inc. 

Shahalam, M., Pacif, S. K., & Myrzakulov, R. (2016). Galileons, phantom fields, and the fate of the Universe. The European Physical Journal C, 76(7) , 410.