PrepTest 152, Section 3, Question 24
Physicists posit that at first our universe was(435 more words not shown)
The author’s reference to a(12 more words not shown)
- Aquestion a presupposition(5 more words not shown)
- Braise a potential(6 more words not shown)
- Cillustrate an implication(5 more words not shown)
- Dshow how a(13 more words not shown)
- Esuggest an alternative(12 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
Garriga and Vilenkin suggest that tiny energy fluctuations in empty space can generate big bangs. Carroll and Chen then use that suggestion in their own explanation. So our first prediction is support for the theory, not an objection or a competing account.
What we’re looking for
What specific gap does it fill? Our universe's low-entropy beginning looks unlikely, and Carroll and Chen propose a more common background resembling cold, empty space. We still need to get from that background to a Big Bang. The fluctuations provide a possible way to make that connection.
Working the answers
- A
The suggestion isn't used to question an assumption of the Big Bang theory. It supplies a mechanism by which big bangs could occur in the larger setting Carroll and Chen propose.
- B
This is something their account incorporates, not a problem raised against it. The fifth paragraph explicitly links our universe with such a fluctuation.
- C
An implication would be something presented as following from Carroll and Chen's theory. Here the suggested mechanism helps make their explanation work in the first place. Its role is to help answer the puzzle, rather than merely illustrate a further consequence.
- DCorrect
How could an unlikely, low-entropy beginning like ours arise from the more typical larger background? Energy fluctuations could produce individual big bangs even in empty space. That gives Carroll and Chen a way to explain our universe within their high-entropy multiverse, resolving the puzzle within their proposed account.
- E
This is not a rival explanation of the evidence. Carroll and Chen take our universe to be one of the fluctuations Garriga and Vilenkin describe. The suggestion contributes to the same account.
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