Cosmical Zero, and the Origin of Radiation and Dense Matter

Abstract

THIS communication is prompted by Prof. J. B. S. Haldane's article “A Quantum Theory of the Origin of the Solar System"¹, in which he elaborated some interesting deductions implicit in Prof. E. A. Milne's kinematic relativity. The gist of the argument is that by extrapolation backwards from the observed expansion of the universe (which is assumed to be linear) a zero point is reached at which the universe, and therefore its material contents, had but infinitesimal dimensions ; by extrapolation backwards from the known degradation of energy, that is, the increase of wave-length and reduction of energy of radiation with the forward progress of time, a zero point is reached at which photons were of infinite energy, with infinitesimal wave-length to allow them to be encompassed within the bounds of the micro-universe. Such a giant photon in collision with a pygmy sun could, it is argued, account for the origin of the solar system. The fallacy of the argument lies in the assumption that the zero points reached by these otherwise independent lines of extrapolation coincide. There are reasons for believing that this cannot be the case, and indeed for thinking that this identification of two quite separate epochs in cosmic history is an assumption which is at variance with the fundamental laws of entropy.