Suppose the speed of light has not always been the same?
This week, I found myself with some time to kill and bought a copy of the “New Scientist” magazine. A special feature looked at “five impossible things about the universe that just might be true”. The first of these related to the speed of light.
Our current thinking, as embodied in Einstein’s general theory of relativity, is that the speed of light is both finite and constant. But the article pointed out that a faster speed of light would solve one of the biggest problems in cosmology: that the universe’s temperature is more or less the same everywhere, even though there has not been enough time since the Big Bang for this thermal equalisation to have taken place.
Standard cosmology solves this problem with the notion of inflation, a period in the very early life of the universe when space suddenly inflated faster than light speed (some which Einstein’s relativity does allow). The article suggests, however, that the same effect as inflation could be achieved if cosmic light speed started out infinite (or at least a lot faster) at the Big Bang and has been becoming slower ever since as space has expanded.
Initially the speed could have fallen precipitously. These days, it could be creeping downwards imperceptibly, explaining why we measure it as constant.
Just saying …
March 4th, 2017 at 1:40 pm
Interesting idea altho my physics is not good enough to understand. What a crazy woderful world