from Hacker News

Is there anything wrong with the theory that everything came from light?

by morpheos137 on 2/6/25, 12:05 AM with 3 comments

We know from E=mc^2 that matter and energy are two sides of the same coin. What is wrong with the theory that at the first moment of the big bang there were only photons and all matter was subsequently generated by photon and vacuum interactions according to stochastic quantum laws?

  • by readyplayernull on 2/6/25, 12:30 AM

    That the photon is only one of several particles, so you need to explain how it transforms into the others, or why any of the others isn't the first one instead:

    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/Standard...

  • by DiogenesKynikos on 2/7/25, 2:11 PM

    Physicists don't typically think of initial conditions right after the Big Bang in the way you're suggesting.

    The typical assumption is that the very early universe was in thermal equilibrium, in which case the set of particles present at any given time depends only on the temperature, and not on initial conditions.