Cycles of Time (book)

Cycles of Time: An Extraordinary New View of the Universe is a science book by mathematical physicist Roger Penrose published by The Bodley Head in 2010. The book outlines Penrose's Conformal Cyclic Cosmology (CCC) model, which is an extension of General Relativity and in oposition to widely supported multidimensional string theories and cosmological inflation following the Big Bang.

Contents

Preface
Acknowledgements
Prologue

Part 1. The Second Law and its underlying mystery

1.1 The relentless march of randomness
1.2 Entropy, as state counting
1.3 Phase space, and Boltzmann's definition of entropy
1.4 The robustness of the entropy concept
1.5 The inexorable increase of entropy into the future
1.6 Why is the past different?

Part 2. The oddly special nature of the Big Bang

2.1 Our expanding universe
2.2 The ubiquitous microwave background
2.3 Space-time, null cones, metrics, conformal geometry
2.4 Black holes and space-time singularities
2.5 Conformal diagrams and conformal boundaries
2.6 Understanding the way the Big Bang was special

Part 3. Conformal cyclic cosmology

3.1 Connecting with infinity
3.2 The structure of CCC
3.3 Earlier pre-Big-Bang proposals
3.4 Squaring the Second Law
3.5 CCC and quantum gravity
3.6 Observational implications

"Epilogue"
"Appendices"
"Notes"
"Index"

Synopsis

Penrose examines implications of the Second Law of Thermodynamics and its inevitable march toward a maximum entropy state of the universe. Illustrating entropy in terms of information state phase space (with 1 dimension for every degree of freedom) where particles end up moving through ever larger grains of this phase space from smaller grains over time due to random motion. Disagreeing with Stephen Hawking's back-track[1] over whether infomation is destroyed when matter enters black holes he goes on further to state that over incredibly long scales of time (t > 10100 years) distance ceases to be meaningful as all mass breaks down into extremely red-shifted photon energy where upon time has no infuence and the universe expands → ∞. This Big Bang to infinite expansion period represents an aeon. The smooth “hairless” infinite oblivion of the previous aeon becomes the low entropy Big Bang state of the next aeon cycle. Conformal geometry preserves the angles but not the distances of the previous aeon, allowing the new aeon universe to appear quite small at its inception as its phase space starts a new. Penrose cites concentric rings found in the WMAP cosmic microwave background survey as preliminary evidence for his model as he predicted black hole collisions from the previous aeon would leave such structures due to ripples of gravitational waves.
Reception

Most critics have found the book a challenge to fully comprehend, a few such as Kirkus reviews[2] and Doug Johnstone for The Scotsman[3] appreciate the against the grain innovative ideas Penrose puts forth. Manjit Kumar reviewing for The Guardian admires the Russian doll geometry play of the CCC concept, framing it as an idea of which M. C. Escher "would have approved".[4] Graham Storrs for the New York Journal of Books concedes that this is not the book that an unambitious lay person should plunge into.[5]
Notes
References

^ Hawking, S.W. (18/07/2005). "Information Loss in Black Holes". Physical Review D 72 (084013).
^ "Cycles of Time: An Extraordinary New View of the Universe - Review". Kirkus Reviews. 4/1/2011.
^ Johnstone, Doug (September 19, 2010). "Book reviews: The Grand Design | Cycles of Time". The Scotsman. Retrieved May 26, 2011.
^ Kumar, Manjit (October 16, 2010). "Cycles of Time: An Extraordinary New View of the Universe by Roger Penrose – review". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 May 2011.
^ Storrs, Graham (May 3, 2011). "Cycles of Time: An Extraordinary New View of the Universe". New York Journal of Books. Retrieved May 26, 2011.