Creation Myths and Modern Cosmology
- 1. The Universe & Our current Understanding Department of Mathematics, School of Advanced Sciences Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore, Tamil Nadu 632014, India Shibesh Kumar Jas Pacif Shri Ramswaroop Memorial University, Lucknow – NCRTMA January 2020
- 2. OUTLINES Introduction: The Observable Universe: Cosmology: • Creation Myths • Modern Cosmology • Timeline of Cosmological Theories & Discoveries Some recent developments: Remarks:
- 3. • Where did all the stuff around come from? Why are we here? Where are we coming from? How the Universe works? What are the fundamental building blocks of the Universe?............... • These fundamental questions are being asked since human evolution. Even a new born baby’s eye and kid’s queries are full of these kind of questions. • Huge information is available in literature since ~ 6000-10000 years BC to answer these questions and a lot of studies are there such as Philosophy, Science and Spirituality etc. • Why we study? This is a common question but we generally do not ask to ourselves. In my view, we study because we want to know the truth, the truth of the very existence of the Universe and the truth of our own self (an integral part of the Universe). Human is trying to understand this since beginning and it took the face of study or education. Let us explore here… INTRODUCTION
- 4. THE OBSERVABLE UNIVERSE Let us watch these small movies to get a short description of our observable Universe from quantum scale to cosmological scale.
- 5. COSMOLOGY The study of the origin, evolution, structure formation, dynamics and the ultimate fate of the Universe is known as COSMOLOGY. Modern cosmology: After the discoveries of Galileo, Copernicus, Newton…, modern cosmology began which are based on observation, mathematics, logic… in accordance with physical laws. He is, Albert Einstein who laid the foundation of special and general relativity is the most successful one up to date. We are now entering the era of precision cosmology. Before Galileo, astronomers, mathematicians, physicists, philosophers proposed several models of the physical Universe based on some evidence or some myths. Creation Myth (Speculative Cosmology): A creation myth is a cultural, religious or traditional myth describing the earliest beginnings of the world we see at present. Creation myths are mostly developed on oral traditions and then written to popularize in human traditional living. Below are some creation myths listed….
- 6. Creation Myths….. (Cosmogony) Regional creation myths Africa Egyptian creation myths Fon creation myth Kaang creation story (Bushmen) Kintu myth (Bugandan) Mandé creation myth Mbombo (Kuba, Bakuba, Boshongo) Ngai (Kamba, Kikuyu and Maasai ) Serer creation myth (Senegal, Gambia, Mauritania) Unkulunkulu (Zulu) Yoruba creation America Coatlicue (Aztec) Maya creation of the world myth Popol Vuh (Quiché Mayan) Mid North America Anishinaabeg creation stories Cherokee creation myth Choctaw creation myth Creek creation myth Hopi creation myth Kuterastan (Plains Apache) Diné Bahaneʼ (Navajo) Raven in Creation (Tlingit, Haida & Tsimshian) Zuni creation myth South America Legend of Trentren Vilu and Caicai Vilu (Chilean) Viracocha (Incan) Xolas (Chilean) Asia Central Asia Ergenekon Mongolian creation myth Tungusic creation myth East Asia Ainu creation myth (Japan) Au Co (Vietnamese) Chinese creation myth Cheonjiwang Bonpuli (Korean) Dangun creation myth (Korean) Japanese creation myth Nüwa (Chinese) Pangu (Chinese) Samseonghyeol legend (Korean)
- 7. Creation Myths….. (continued…..) Indian subcontinent Ajativada Folk Hindu creation myth Hiranyagarbha creation Kanglei mythology Mimamsa eternalism Nyaya- Vaisheshika atomic theory Samkhya-yoga theory Sanamahi creation myth Buddhist cosmology Jainism and non-creationism Europe Greek cosmogonical myth (Greek) Pelasgian creation myth (Greek) Väinämöinen (Finnish) Völuspá (Norse) Raelian creation myth (French) Pacific Islands/Oceanic Areop-Enap (Nauruan) Kumulipo (Hawaiian) Māori myths (Māori) Rangi and Papa (Māori) Sureq Galigo (Buginese) Areop-Enap (Nauruan) Middle East Debate between sheep and grain Enûma Eliš (Babylonian) Genesis creation myth (Hebrew) Islamic creation myth (Arabic) Mashya and Mashyana (Persian) Sumerian creation myth Leviathan creation myth Creation from chaos Earth diverEmergence Ex nihilo (out of nothing) World ParentDivine twins These are some theories of creation region-wise. There are many more based on religion, community etc. Most of these are based on imagination or some minor geographical arguments. But, Modern Cosmological ideas follow the development of the scientific discipline, based on mathematics and physical observations and experiments. Physical laws of nature can not be different w.r.t. person, place, time.
- 8. Modern Cosmology • Modern cosmology is a mathematical physics subject. So we must use mathematics in these studies for the theoretical base and link to the conceptual principles and the observational tests of the resulting models of the Universe. • Physics is same everywhere in the Universe. This is not obvious, because cosmology covers such vast time and distance scales, going right back to the beginning of the Universe and to immensely larger distances than the Solar System and galactic scales. • Gravity is the dominant force in the Universe on Solar System and also at larger scales. • Gravity in the classical regime is well described by General Relativity Theory. So this is the theory that best describes the geometry and dynamics of the observable Universe. • One represents the evolution by using Einstein Field Equations to determine the effects of gravity, together with models of the local behavior of matter which are the source terms for the gravitational field. • GTR is the best description of the Universe till date. However, at quantum scale, it suffers with some problems.
- 9. Timeline of Cosmological Theories & Discoveries Before Christ Era (BCE) 16th century BCE-Mesopotamian cosmology describes a flat, circular Earth enclosed in a cosmic ocean. 12th century BCE The Rigveda (composed around 1700-1100 BCE) has some cosmological hymns (in Nasadiya Sukta) describes the origin of the Universe, originating from the monistic Hiranyagarbha or “Golden Egg”. 6th century BCE- The Babylonian world map shows the Earth surrounded by the cosmic ocean, with seven islands arranged around it so as to form a seven-pointed star. Contemporary Biblical cosmology reflects the same view of a flat, circular Earth. 4th century BCE- Aristotle proposes an Earth-centered Universe (Anthropoce ntrism) in which the Earth is stationary and the cosmos is finite in extent but infinite in time. 4th century BCE-De Mundo, Five elements, situated in spheres in five regions, the less being in each case surrounded by the greater – the earth surrounded by water, water by air, air by fire, and fire by ether make up the whole Universe.
- 10. 3rd century BCE-Archimedes in his essay The Sand Reckoner, estimates the diameter of the cosmos to be the equivalent in stadia of what we call two light years. 2nd century BCE-Seleucus of Seleucia elaborates on Aristarchus’ heliocentric Universe, using the phenomenon of tides to explain heliocentrism. 3rd century BCE-Aristarchus of Samos proposes a Sun-centered Universe (Heliocentrism). Christ Era (CE) 2nd century CE- Ptolemy proposes an Earth- centered Universe, with the Sun, Moon, and visible planets revolving around the Earth. 5th-11th centuries- Some astronomers (Aryabhata, Albumasar...) propose a Sun- centered Universe. 6th century – John Philoponus proposes a Universe that is finite in time and argues against the ancient Greek notion of an infinite Universe. The Qur’an mentions (ch.21- Ver.30) “Have those who disbelieved not considered that the heavens and the earth were a joined entity, and We separated them and made from water every living thing? Then will they not believe?”.
- 11. 12th century-Fakhr al-Din al- Razi discusses Islamic cosmology, rejects Aristotle’s idea of an Earth- centered Universe, and, in the context of his commentary on the Qur'anic verse, “All praise belongs to God, Lord of the Worlds,”……. He argued that there exists an infinite outer space beyond the known world and that there could be an infinite number of Universes. 8th century-Puranic Hindu cosmology, in which the Universe goes through repeated cycles of creation, destruction and rebirth, with each cycle lasting 4.32 billion years. 9th-12th centuries-Al- Kindi (Alkindus), Saadia Gaon (Saadia ben Joseph) and Al-Ghazali (Algazel) support a Universe that has a finite past and develop two logical arguments against the notion of an infinite past, one of which is later adopted by Immanuel Kant. 964-Abd al-Rahman al- Sufi (Azophi), a Persian astronomer, makes the first recorded observations of the Andromeda Galaxy and the Large Magellanic Cloud, the first galaxies other than the Milky Way to be observed from Earth, in his Book of Fixed Stars.
- 12. 13th century-Nasīr al-Dīn al- Tūsī provides the first empirical evidence for the Earth’s rotation on its axis. 15th century– Ali Qushji provides empirical evidence for the Earth’s rotation on its axis and rejects the stationary Earth theories of Aristotle and Ptolemy. 15th-16th centuries- Nilakantha Somayaji & Tycho Brahe propose a Universe in which the planets orbit the Sun and the Sun orbits the Earth, known as the Tychonic system. 1543- Nicolaus Copernicus publishes his heliocentric Universe. 1576-Thomas Digges modifies the Copernican system by removing its outer edge and replacing the edge with a star- filled unbounded space. 1584-Giordano Bruno proposes a non-hierarchical cosmology, wherein the Copernican Solar System is not the center of the Universe, but rather, a relatively insignificant star system. 1610-Johannes Kepler uses the dark night sky to argue for a finite Universe. 1687- Sir Isaac Newton’s laws describe large-scale motion throughout the Universe.
- 13. 1729-James Bradley discovers the aberration of light, due to the Earth’s motion around the Sun. 1744-Jean-Philippe de Cheseaux puts forth an early form of Olbers’ paradox. 1755-Immanuel Kant asserts that the nebulae are really galaxies separate from, independent of and outside the Milky Way Galaxy; he calls them island Universes. 1785-William Herschel proposes the theory that our Sun is at or near the center of the galaxy. 1791-Erasmus Darwin pens the first description of a cyclical expanding and contracting Universe in a poem. 1826 -Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers puts forth Olbers’ paradox. 1720-Edmund Halley puts forth an early form of Olbers’ paradox. 1837-Friedrich Bessel, Thomas Henderson and Otto Struve measure the parallax of a few nearby stars; this is the first measurement of any distances outside the Solar System. 1848-Edgar Allan Poe offers first correct solution to Olbers’ paradox in Eureka: A Prose Poem, an essay that also suggests the expansion and collapse of the Universe. 1860s-William Huggins develops astronomical spectroscopy; he shows that the Orion nebula is mostly made of gas, while the Andromeda nebula (later called Andromeda Galaxy) is probably dominated by stars.
- 14. 1900’s After EINSTEIN 1922-Alexander Friedmann finds a solution to the Einstein field equations which suggests a general expansion of space. 1905-Albert Einstein publishes the Special Theory of Relativity - space and time are not separate continua. 1912- Henrietta Leavitt discovers the period- luminosity law for Cepheid variable stars, which becomes a crucial step in measuring distances to other galaxies. 1915-Albert Einstein publishes the General Theory of Relativity, showing that an energy density warps space- time. 1917-Willem de Sitter derives an isotropic static cosmology with a cosmological constant, as well as an empty expanding cosmology with a cosmological constant, termed a de Sitter Universe.
- 15. 1923- Edwin Hubble measure distances to a few nearby spiral nebulae (galaxies), the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), Triangulum Galaxy (M33), and NGC 6822. The distances place them far outside our Milky Way, and implies that fainter galaxies are much more distant, and the Universe is composed of many thousands of galaxies. 1927-Georges Lemaître discusses the creation event of an expanding Universe governed by the Einstein field equations. From its solutions to the Einstein equations, he predicts the distance-redshift relation. 1928-Howard P. Robertson briefly mentions that Vesto Slipher's redshift measurements combined with brightness measurements of the same galaxies indicate a redshift- distance relation. 1929-Edwin Hubble demonstrates the linear redshift-distance relation and thus shows the expansion of the Universe. 1933-Edward Milne names and formalizes the cosmological principle. 1933-Fritz Zwicky shows that the Coma cluster of galaxies contains large amounts of dark matter. This result agrees with modern measurements, but is generally ignored until the 1970s. 1934-Georges Lemaître interprets the cosmological constant as due to a vacuum energy with an unusual perfect fluid equation of state. 1938-Paul Dirac suggests the large numbers hypothesis, that the gravitational constant may be small because it is decreasing slowly with time. 1948-Ralph Alpher, Hans Bethe, and George Gamow examine element synthesis in a rapidly expanding and cooling Universe, and suggest that the elements were produced by rapid neutron capture.
- 16. 1948-Hermann Bondi, Thomas Gold, and Fred Hoyle propose steady state cosmology based on the perfect cosmological principle. 1948-George Gamow predicts the existence of the cosmic microwave background radiation by considering the behavior of primordial radiation in an expanding Universe. 1950-Fred Hoyle coins the term “Big Bang”, saying that it was not derisive; it was just a striking image meant to highlight the difference between that and the Steady-State model. 1961-Robert Dicke argues that carbon-based life can only arise when the gravitational force is small, because this is when burning stars exist; first use of the weak anthropic principle. 1963-Maarten Schmidt discovers the first quasar; these soon provide a probe of the universe back to substantial redshifts. 1965-Hannes Alfvén proposes the now-discounted concept of ambiplasma to explain baryon asymmetry and supports the idea of an infinite Universe. 1965-Martin Rees and Dennis Sciama analyze quasar source count data and discover that the quasar density increases with redshift.
- 17. 1966-Stephen Hawking and George Ellis show that any plausible general relativistic cosmology is singular. 1966-James Peebles shows that the hot Big Bang predicts the correct helium abundance. 1967-Andrei Sakharov presents the requirements for baryogenesis, a baryon-antibaryon asymmetry in the Universe. 1967-John Bahcall, Wal Sargent, and Maarten Schmidt measure the fine-structure splitting of spectral lines in 3C191 and thereby show that the fine-structure constant does not vary significantly with time. 1967-Robert Wagner, William Fowler, and Fred Hoyle show that the hot Big Bang predicts the correct deuterium and lithium abundances. 1968-Brandon Carter speculates that perhaps the fundamental constants of nature must lie within a restricted range to allow the emergence of life; first use of the strong anthropic principle. 1969-Charles Misner formally presents the Big Bang horizon problem. 1969-Robert Dicke formally presents the Big Bang flatness problem. 1965-Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, astronomers at Bell Labs discover the 2.7K microwave background radiation, which earns them the 1978 Nobel Prize in Physics. Robert Dicke, James Peebles, Peter Roll and David Todd Wilkinson interpret it as a relic from the big bang.
- 18. 1970-Vera Rubin and Kent Ford measure spiral galaxy rotation curves at large radii, showing evidence for substantial amounts of dark matter. 1973-Edward Tryon proposes that the Universe may be a large scale quantum mechanical vacuum fluctuation where positive mass-energy is balanced by negative gravitational potential energy. 1976-Alex Shlyakhter uses samarium ratios from the Oklo prehistoric natural nuclear fission reactor in Gabon to show that some laws of physics have remained unchanged for over two billion years. 1977-Gary Steigman, David Schramm, and James Gunn examine the relation between the primordial helium abundance and number of neutrinos and claim that at most five lepton families can exist. 1981-Viacheslav Mukhanov and G. Chibisov propose that quantum fluctuations could lead to large scale structure in an inflationary Universe. 1982-The first CfA galaxy redshift survey is completed. 1980-Alan Guth and Alexei Starobinsky independently propose the inflationary Big Bang Universe as a possible solution to the horizon and flatness problems. 1982-Several groups including James Peebles, J. Richard Bond and George Blumenthal propose that the Universe is dominated by cold dark matter.
- 19. 1983-1987-The first large computer simulations of cosmic structure formation are run by Davis, Efstathiou, Frenk and White. The results show that cold dark matter produces a reasonable match to observations, but hot dark matter does not. 1988-The CfA2 Great Wall is discovered in the CfA2 redshift survey. 1988-Measurements of galaxy large-scale flows provide evidence for the Great Attractor. 1990-Preliminary results from NASA’s COBE mission confirm the cosmic microwave background radiation has a blackbody spectrum to an astonishing one part in 105 precision, thus eliminating the possibility of an integrated starlight model proposed for the background by steady state enthusiasts. 1992-Further COBE measurements discover the very small anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background, providing a “baby picture” of the seeds of large-scale structure when the Universe was around 1/1100th of its present size and 380,000 years old.
- 20. 1998-Controversial evidence for the fine structure constant varying over the lifetime of the Universe is first published. 1996-The first Hubble Deep Field is released, providing a clear view of very distant galaxies when the Universe was around one-third of its present age. 1998-The Supernova Cosmology Project and High-Z Supernova Search Team discover cosmic acceleration based on distances to Type Ia supernovae, providing the first direct evidence for a non-zero cosmological constant. 1998-Michael S. Turner is a theoretical cosmologist coined the term dark energy. Cosmological models with dark energy to explain cosmic acceleration started afterwards.
- 21. 1999-Measurements of the cosmic microwave background radiation with finer resolution than COBE, (BOOMERanG experiment) provide evidence for oscillations (the first acoustic peak) in the anisotropy angular spectrum, as expected in the standard model of cosmological structure formation. The angular position of this peak indicates that the geometry of the Universe is close to flat. 2001-The 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey (2dF) by an Australian/British team gave strong evidence that the matter density is near 25% of critical density. Together with the CMB results for a flat Universe, this provides independent evidence for a cosmological constant or similar dark energy. 2002- The Cosmic Background Imager (CBI) in Chile obtained images of the cosmic microwave background radiation with the highest angular resolution of 4 arc minutes. It also obtained the anisotropy spectrum at high- resolution not covered before up to l ~ 3000. It found a slight excess in power at high-resolution (l > 2500) not yet completely explained, the so-called “CBI-excess”. 2003-NASA’s Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) obtained full- sky detailed pictures of the cosmic microwave background radiation. The images can be interpreted to indicate that the Universe is 13.7 billion years old (within one percent error), and are very consistent with the Lambda-CDM model and the density fluctuations predicted by inflation.
- 22. 2003-The Sloan Great Wall is discovered. 2004-The Degree Angular Scale Interferometer (DASI) first obtained the E-mode polarization spectrum of the cosmic microwave background radiation. 2005-The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and 2dF redshift surveys both detected the baryon acoustic oscillation feature in the galaxy distribution, a key prediction of cold dark matter models. 2006-The long-awaited three-year WMAP results are released, confirming previous analysis, correcting several points, and including polarization data. 2006-2011-Improved measurements from WMAP, new supernova surveys ESSENCE and SNLS, and baryon acoustic oscillations from SDSS and WiggleZ, continue to be consistent with the standard Lambda-CDM model. 2014-On March 17, 2014, astrophysicists of the BICEP2 collaboration announced the detection of inflationary gravitational waves in the B-mode power spectrum, which if confirmed, would provide clear experimental evidence for the theory of inflation. However, on June 19, 2014, lowered confidence in confirming the cosmic inflation findings was reported. 2015-Plank 2015 results published. 2016-On February 11, 2016, LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration announced that gravitational waves were directly detected by two LIGO detectors. The waveform matched the prediction of General relativity for a gravitational wave emanating from the inward spiral and merger of a pair of black holes of around 36 and 29 solar masses and the subsequent “ringdown” of the single resulting black hole. The second detection verified that GW150914 is not a fluke, thus opens entire new branch in astrophysics, gravitational-wave astronomy. 2018-Plank 2018 results published. 2019-The first picture of black hole revealed.
- 23. Hubble Frontier Fields image of the galaxy cluster MACS J07175+3745. Faint blue arcs are distant galaxies that have been magnified and distorted by the light-bending gravity of the massive cluster in front of them. SOURCE: Courtesy of NASA, ESA, and the HST Frontier Fields team (STScI). Some recent developments
- 24. The Big Bang Theory Big Bang theory is a scientific theory about how the Universe came to exist and all the stuffs we see today. It’s states that the Universe began with a very hot, very small and very dense state (called the singularity). Around 13.8 billion years ago, the space expanded with incredible rate (inflation) and continues to expand since then. BB theory is based on General Theory of Relativity proposed by Einstein. The BB theory able to explain the observable Universe far better than any other theory proposed till date.