| ABSTRACT
The default model in cosmology, the so-call inflationary big-bang model, which is based on the Friedman-Robertson-Walker (FRW) solution of the Einstein equations of general relativity augmented with an early exponential expansion (Inflation), agrees remarkably well with CMB observations.
However the model avoids addressing or even mentioning the Big Bang. A real question is: what was the big bang? What was the physics of the Big Bang? Was there nothing before it? If so where did it come from? If there was something? What was it? If there was a before, how did we go thru it. These are real physics questions. Recently a new rather radical cosmological theory – based largely on Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity – due to Roger Penrose of Oxford University, returns to these issues. I plan to describe the basic ideas of this theory and discuss the status of its surprising predictions and associated observations. | |