Topic: Penrose’s Cyclic Cosmology

[sam]

Update: Gurzadyan and Penrose have very quickly put up a response to the analysis papers quoted below.

Gurzadyan & Penrose Roger Penrose and his collaborator Vahe Gurzadyan made a splash recently by claiming that there was evidence in the cosmic microwave background for a pre-Big-Bang era in the history of the universe. (Here’s the paper.) The evidence takes the form of correlated circles in the cosmic microwave background anisotropies, as pictured here. They claim that they have found such circles at a level of significance much higher than would be predicted in a conventional scenario, where perturbations were random and uncorrelated on various scales.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2010/12/07/penroses-cyclic-cosmology/

[Clive]

If true, the new Penrose theory would have been the biggest astronomical sensation of the century.  However, if other scientists are unable to reproduce the results then this is Penrose's Le Verrier moment.  It's a shame because he should have quit while he was known as one of the greatest theoretical physicists of the 20th century.  This will leave a dreadful stain on his obituary. 

[Simon]

Will he care?

[Clive]

All great people worry about their obituaries.  He will know that he's screwed his up.   

[sam]

but they are arguing back... and it sounds as if people believe some of what he is saying from the data, just not the larger arching consequences.

[Clive]

We will await the outcome with great interest!  It would be awesome if he can prove it.