The Universe - The First Three Nanoseconds

ABSTRACT

E.P.S. Shellard (DAMTP, Cambridge)

The purpose of this talk is to discuss insights offered by modern cosmology about time and eternity.

First, I want to go on a journey backwards in time towards the moment of creation. This will take us from the present day at about 15 billion years back through a well-established sequence of physical events to 1/100th of a second after the Big Bang. We continue then to travel backwards until 1/100th of a nanosecond into regimes when known physical laws operated, but for which quantitative details remain elusive. From here we venture back into the progressively more mysterious until 10-43 seconds when our concepts of space and time break down.

Secondly, I want to discuss some recent speculative ideas about the origin of our universe and the beginning of time, concentrating on Hawking's "no boundary proposal". I will briefly comment on the apparent resonance between modern notions, such as creation "out of nothing", and an Augustinian view of the relationship between God, creation and time.

Finally, I want to consider eschatology in the light of modern cosmology. What is the physical fate of the universe and what hope (or lack thereof) does it offer in eternity?