Big Bang to Big Sponge

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GENERAL NOTE. This article is a revision and republication of an earlier post that can serve as an introduction to quantitative material on the topic already presented in the newsletter format. Regular readers might find the analogy useful as well.

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When a catalyzed liquid is expanding into an open-celled sponge, it appears as a miniature piece of the dynamic large-scale structure of the universe (see image). The voids of the material are basically spherical, which is not readily apparent in this particular two dimensional simulation; some voids are overlapped in areas where material density is low or absent; some void shells touch and distort in three or more places. As the voids expand they press the material aspect into mega-clusters, sheets and filaments, simultaneously displaying repulsive and attractive effects. Voids occur at all levels, but some dominate by chance and marginalize the smaller.

The repulsive primary effects are in the voids, and the attractive secondary effects the material. The material is compressed by almost adjacent expanding voids. The voids are the active elements and the material the passive elements.

This sponge example might mirror what is occurring in the large-scale structure of the Universe. The expanding gas bubbles of the sponge might represent the large-scale cosmic voids under the influence of the cosmological constant / dark energy and/or quantum vacuum energy, and/or other agent (see below) causing accelerated universal expansion, and the sheets and filaments of the sponge material might represent galactic superclusters apparently being compressed into the observed astronomical sheets and filaments. In three dimensions these superclusters surround the voids as a shell covers and egg.

The expansion of space does not occur as is so often illustrated, where?all?dots painted on the surface of an inflating balloon move away from one another. If this was the case, clusters of galaxies (and all below this level) would not remain stable. Such clusters are fundamental astronomical units. The expansion of space according to the Hubble law occurs above this level. In order to properly use the "raisins in a loaf cake" analogy, the raisins must represent clusters of galaxies; it is above this level that universal expansion is apparent (and at and below this level where attractive gravity is apparent). Note the complementarity of the loaf cake and sponge analogies now, but with the addition of a possible reason gravity only?appears?attractive below superclusters -- the "yeast" is primarily in the loaf, and only marginally in the raisins, stabilizing the raisins.

Again, this suggests the possibility of a fundamentally repulsive gravity in place of the active expanding agent, in that viewpoint becomes key (recalling special relativity). From the viewpoint below superclusters, gravity might only?appear?attractive. At the large-scale level of large space voids surrounded by galactic superclusters where expansion is most apparent, gravity might be?fundamentally?repulsive.