Non-standard cosmology

A non-standard cosmology is a cosmological theory that contradicts the standard model of cosmology. The term has been used since the late-1960's after the discovery of the cosmic background radiation (CBR) in 1965 removed the steady state theory as a viable alternative to the Big Bang theory. Since around the time of the discovery of the CBR, this has in practice primarily meant any cosmological theory which argues that the big bang theory is "based on the wrong assumptions".

Table of contents

1 Standard model
2 Alternatives
3 Non-standard
4 Related books
5 See also

Standard model

The standard model of cosmology has asserted that:

redshifts observed in distant galaxies are due to the expansion of the universe
this expansion is due to the expansion of space-time as predicted by general relativity and that if you move backward in time you will eventually reach the big bang.

Non-standard cosmologies challenge one or both of these beliefs, usually asserting that one or the other of these beliefs are incorrect.

Alternatives

Alternative models of cosmology that do not challenge these two assertions are not termed non-standard cosmologies, even if they are not widely accepted. For example, the modified Newtonian dynamics is not a non-standard cosmology even though it radically challenges mainstream views on gravity.

Non-standard

An example of a highly speculative and controversial idea that is considered a non-standard cosmology is the ekpyrotic universe which holds that the expansion of the universe began in the collision of two membranes from alternate dimensions. This is considered a non-standard cosmology because it agrues against premises of the big bang model.

Besides the background cosmic radiation, the basic observation which a non-standard cosmology needs to deal with is the observation of cosmic redshift (ie., the apparent expansion of the universe). Halton Arp argues, in Quasar, Redshifts and Controversies, that Hubble's law can be invalidated. He has argued that galaxies can exhibit strange redshifts, and that redshifts themselves could be quantized - something that current theories cannot explain at macroscopic scales and believes that general relativity is incorrect and that LeSage gravity is correct.

Observations made since the 1960s by Halton Arp claim to disprove the standard model of redshift and Hubble's Law. Arp claims that there are correlations between quasars and active galaxies that demonstrate that the cosmic redshift is not due to the expansion of the universe, but is instead local to the source of radiation (example: NGC 7603). Some astrophysicists (and particular those that follow the standard model) believe that these correlations do not exist in reality and that Arp's observations are the result of faulty statistics. They also believe that it is gravitational lensing that is responsible for most examples of quasars in the immediate vicinity of active galactic nuclei. If it is indeed gravitational lensing, then an explanation should be proposed by the standard community to account for the quasars' tendency to align along the host galaxies minor (rotational) axis. It is important to note that while these discordant redshifts contradict the Big Bang as a whole, they can still be accounted for in models of plasma cosmology. Also, discordant redshifts do not debunk Alfven's model, even though his model can still be used to predict a locally expanding universe.

In some non-standard cosmology this is not regarded as a general expansion of space time, but rather as result of physical effects of ambiplasma (explainable via concepts in the Sunyaev Zeldovic Effect). Also, some non-standard cosmology may attribute the redshift to physical effects of photons or it may assert that the universe is expanding but that this expansion is not the result of space's expansion itself (i.e. the Alfven universe, see Plasma cosmology).

Related books

Seeing Red., Halton Arp, Apeiron, Montreal, 1998, ISBN 0968368905