Best we can tell, yes. At extremely high energy densities, the fundamental forces become obvious to be aspects of the same force. EM combines with the weak force (creatively called the electro-weak force), even higher and the strong force becomes linked. The only one we can’t link, so far, is gravity. It’s either fundamentally different, or we just haven’t pumped enough energy into a small enough space yet.
Scaling up, the universe has a weird property, it’s almost exactly the same temperature everywhere. Given what we know about the big bang, that should be impossible. The “explosion” would have been so violent that the various parts, limited by the speed of light, wouldn’t have been able to communicate. Our best theory is that space-time itself was in a different “phase”. It was capable of expansion faster than light. Eventually the energy density dropped, and space “crystallised” into what we have now. The echoes of this are imprinted into the cosmic background radiation.
Interestingly, there is a loose idea that our current space-time might not be the lowest state. If the first shift was equivalent to gas-to-liquid, then there might be a “solid” phase of space time. In this theory, the universe could be in a supercritical state. Once any 1 point changes, the change will propagate out at the speed of light. We would never even see it coming, until the laws of physics changed. Considering how tied chemistry is to the exact nature of spacetime, such a change would almost certainly be incompatible with earth life.
Best we can tell, yes. At extremely high energy densities, the fundamental forces become obvious to be aspects of the same force. EM combines with the weak force (creatively called the electro-weak force), even higher and the strong force becomes linked. The only one we can’t link, so far, is gravity. It’s either fundamentally different, or we just haven’t pumped enough energy into a small enough space yet.
Scaling up, the universe has a weird property, it’s almost exactly the same temperature everywhere. Given what we know about the big bang, that should be impossible. The “explosion” would have been so violent that the various parts, limited by the speed of light, wouldn’t have been able to communicate. Our best theory is that space-time itself was in a different “phase”. It was capable of expansion faster than light. Eventually the energy density dropped, and space “crystallised” into what we have now. The echoes of this are imprinted into the cosmic background radiation.
Interestingly, there is a loose idea that our current space-time might not be the lowest state. If the first shift was equivalent to gas-to-liquid, then there might be a “solid” phase of space time. In this theory, the universe could be in a supercritical state. Once any 1 point changes, the change will propagate out at the speed of light. We would never even see it coming, until the laws of physics changed. Considering how tied chemistry is to the exact nature of spacetime, such a change would almost certainly be incompatible with earth life.