X-Message-Number: 17907 From: "Pat Clancy" <> Date: Mon, 12 Nov 2001 10:37:14 -0800 Subject: Re: More on uncaused events and something from nothing > >This is often justified based on the idea of a sort of gigantic quantum > >fluctuation. > > What is a gigantic quantum fluctuation? > Well, note that I said "sort of..." :-) I believe this is based on the idea of "quantum foam", which is supposed to be what space-time looks like at the smallest scale. This foam is constantly giving rise to the creation of virtual particles/anti-pariticles, that are then usually quickly (_very_ quickly) re- absorbed into the foam (so to speak). (This virtual particle creation has been verified experimentally.) Well, if there's a pre-existing Void, which is purely vacuum energy, then if you wait long enough there could be the spontaneous creation of a universe-sized clump of energy. As a variation on this, some physicists believe that baby universes are constantly being created in the quantum foam, and these may be attached to our universe by a tiny wormhole, or perhaps they break off altogether after being born. But the birth of one of these baby universes would constitute its Big Bang. Pat Clancy Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=17907