Let's see... Before the break, weren't there only basic, uniform particles/quarks, that were all identical? It was my understanding that the break of the singularity caused those basic particles to become the 6 (is it 6?) differently charged, differently spinning particles/quarks that we have today -- i.e. some became the building blocks of photons, some of protons, some of electrons, etc.


crap nevermind, now i've confused myself -- photons aren't built the same way as protons and electrons.

in a nutshell; there is a force called electroweak. This force is conveyed between matter through special particles, 'gauge bosons'. The electroweak force is devided in four bosons; Aminus, Aplus, Bminus and Bplus.

When the amount of energy decreased in the universe (due to the inflation), the bosons' properties changed. Three of them suddenly had mass. This process is called Electroweak Symmetry Breaking.

The three particles that have mass still work as conveyers of the electroweak force, but since they now have mass they can only do this over short distances (the more mass something has, the bigger the chance that it degrades).
The one particle that didn't change properties is able to travel indefinitely (no mass, therefore no degredation). This particle is what we know as the Photon.

Ergo, photons didn't change during the Electroweak Symmetry Breaking which means it is perfectly acceptable to have a theory that says there were photons before electroweak.

Everything I know about this subject I got out of A Brief History of Time, so a lot of it is probably outdated (and a little oversimplified in my brain ).

Looks like I'm also remembering it slightly wrong; I'll have to go back and do some re-reading.

What you say about the mass is familiar though. It seems like I also read that the particles that are the vehicles for gravity don't have mass either, which is why they're able to work over such long distances.

After I finish ABHoT, are there any other books you guys would recommend to bring me up to date on the more recent advances and theories?


edit: and when i said singularity i was talking about the big bang. i was under the impression that everything was essentially a singularity just before the bang -- is this not true?

There was a chapter about this in The Elegant Universe .