What Is Low Entropy in the Early Universe?

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In a universe with gravity, like ours, densely packed material will be high entropy when it's lumpy. And the early universe was nothing like that at all. We don't know why the early universe had low entropy. It's provocative. One thing to try is can you just imagine turning off gravity in the early universe so that it went to a high entropy state that looked thermal and then you turn gravity back on? Brian Green and some of his collaborators wrote a paper literally about that possibility but I don't think it works.

Welcome to the February 2023 Ask Me Anything episode of Mindscape! These monthly excursions are funded by Patreon supporters (who are also the ones asking the questions). We take questions asked by Patreons, whittle them down to a more manageable number — based primarily on whether I have anything interesting to say about them, not whether the questions themselves are good — and sometimes group them together if they are about a similar topic. Enjoy!

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