Cosmology and the Origin of Life

Some Important Rules

So what really is a particle? --> Good Question:

Schematic of a proton:

Now it gets really weird: The Universe at times less than 0.0000000000000000000001 seconds.

The uncertainty principle is important as the universe is in a quantum state initially (?)

What this all means is that if quantum mechanics holds at very early times then large energy fluctuations (on which our universe is one) had no choice but to happen.

So, are these quantum fluctuations supposed to evolve and ask questions?

At very early times:

• Quantum Fluctuations should produce strange hadronic pairs
• A Hadron is any particle which is subject to the strong force
• Hardrons are composed of quarks

• The force between quarks increases with increasing seperation and decreases as the quarks get closer together (gluon "force" goes down)
• There are no free quarks today: all quarks are in hadrons

• But, when the universe was very small, the quarks were so close to one another that no Hadrons could exist. Hence, even though U and D quarks were present the could not form a proton because the quarks can not be found together. Its the free quark episode and we don't understand what the physics would be.

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