Abstract
All Friedmann models have an epoch in the past when the scale factor S was zero. We refer to this epoch as the big bang epoch. To mathematicians, the big bang implies a breakdown of the concept of spacetime geometry, and they have come to recognize it as an inevitable feature of Einstein’s general relativity. It is a feature that prevents the physicist from investigating what happened at S = 0 or prior to it. To some physicists, this abrupt termination of the past signifies an incompleteness of the theory of relativity. To them, a more complete theory of the future may show a way of avoiding the catastrophic nature of the S = 0 epoch. A universe that has been expanding forever or that has been oscillating between maximum and minimum (but finite) values of S, might result from such a theory.
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Narlikar, J.V. (1989). Relics of the Big Bang. In: Iyer, B.R., Mukunda, N., Vishveshwara, C.V. (eds) Gravitation, Gauge Theories and the Early Universe. Fundamental Theories of Physics, vol 29. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2577-9_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2577-9_5
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