Regarding all of this stuff about something being unable to be produced from nothing, I call attention to studies of black holes and spontaneous particle creation.
From Evaporation of black holes and string theory
...the black holes emit particles and thermal " radiation ", with a temperature which depends only on their mass: the black hole is the more " hot " that it is not very massive. These particles are emitted in a zone right outside the horizon of the black hole (limit inside which nothing can escape). It is a quantum effect, based on the spontaneous creation of pairs of particle-antiparticles in the energy fluctuations of the vacuum.I quoted that last paragraph regarding primordial black holes in particular, because, as I recall, it is not just primordial black holes, but also astronomical black holes formed by gravitational collapse that generate energy. More importantly, however, this helps explain in some part the extremely energetic state of the universe mere milliseconds after the Big Bang (Which is technically still only a theory - science makes no claim to actually know what happened before or during the Big Bang, and has formulated it, a flawed theory, though it is unfortunately often presented as fact because there is no real alternate idea for the formation of the universe beyond the deus ex machina of divine intervention).From A Panoramic Tour in Black Hole Physics
An incidence wave can be reflected from the Kerr black hole [Rotating, as opposed to a Schwartzchild static black hole] with an amplitude larger that the origininal one. This is possible for the presence of the ergosphere. The energy is subtracted to the rotational energy of the black hole, which loses angular momentum until the process stops. Quantum-mechanically this phenomenon can be seen as particle creation (in the superradiant modes) by the black hole itself (stimulated emission).
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Hawking's effect (particle creation by black holes-1974)
Quantum mechanical effects cause black holes to create and emit particles as if they were hot bodies with temperature
[Equations excerpted]
This thermal emission leads to a slow decrease in the mass of the black hole and eventually to its complete disappearance.
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Primordial black holes (formed after the big-bang) of mass about 10^15 g would evaporate by now by emitting X and gamma rays. In the last 10^-23 sec a primordial black hole explodes with the emission of 10^35 ergs of energy.
As well, there's also this article, Creation ex nihilo. Effectively, it looks at the simultaneous particle creation, gravity (Functioning as negative energy in effect), and a theoretical situation immediately after the Big Bang.
I'd say more, but I want to avoid thinking too much after this last week.
knowitman|
