News Release

COULD THE BIG BANG THEORY BE WRONG?

Dr. Michael Breen, AMS Public Awareness Officer
Email: myb@ams.org
Telephone: 401-455-4109
Fax: 401-331-3842

November 29, 2000

In 1929, Edwin Hubble interpreted certain astronomical data as indicating that all galaxies in the universe are receding from one another. This explanation of the cosmic "red shift" convinced astronomers that the universe is expanding and led naturally to the idea that the universe was born in a singular event known as the "Big Bang". Nowadays, nearly all astronomers take the Big Bang theory as gospel.

What is the evidence supporting the Big Bang theory and its most fundamental postulate, the expansion of the universe? How reliable is that evidence? Are there other theories that better account for the evidence? The enclosed article explores these questions, discussing some of the shortcomings of the Big Bang theory and proposing an alternative theory, called "chronometric cosmology," or CC for short. The authors make the bold suggestion that the Big Bang theory might actually be wrong and that CC provides a better theoretical model of the universe.

Developed by the MIT mathematician Irving E. Segal (1918-1998), CC starts with the basic model of the Einstein Universe, in which physical space is finite and curved, and adds to it the notion that there are actually two kinds of time: a cosmic time and a local time. Observationally the two are indistinguishable because only extragalactic observations could tell them apart. Adding them to the Einstein Universe model allows CC theory to account for the cosmic red shift as a natural consequence of the curvature of space, rather than as a consequence of the motion of galaxies.

Similarly, CC provides an explanation for other basic cosmological phenomena, such as the three degrees Kelvin cosmic background radiation. Moreover, the authors write, "unlike the Big Bang cosmology, CC does not need to resort to ad hoc scenarios---such as `evolution' for quasars and radio sources, and `inflation' at the hypothetical beginning of the universe". They liken such scenarios to the elaborate "epicycles" introduced by ancient astronomers who assumed that the earth was at the center of the solar system, before Copernicus vastly simplified the explanation of planetary motion by noting that all planets revolve around the sun.

"Can Segal be right against almost the entire astronomical community?" the authors ask. Because of the difficulties and limitations of astronomical observations, the jury is still out. But many of the insights of Segal's CC theory indicate that it must be more fully explored.

The article "Einstein's Static Universe: An Idea Whose Time Has Come Back?" by Aubert Daigneault and Arturo Sangalli, will appear in the January 2001 issue of the Notices of the AMS. A PDF file containing the article may be downloaded from http://www.ams.org/notices/200101/fea-daigneault.pdf.

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