Let There Be Light, completed 12/26/2017

The numbers appearing in this painting are related to particles doing a random walk in one dimension.  Let me explain.  Consider a piece of graph paper that is divided up into contiguous squares. Go to the top of this page of graph paper and let's assume that all of the particles in the universe are in the square in the center of the top row.  We'll call that row, row 0 (zero), and that square, B, for beginning. Time is quantized and come in discreet identical "chunks" of duration T.  After  one tick of the universal clock half of the paraticles in B move to the square to B's left and half move to the square on B's right. So the Universe now consist of 3 squares when it is 1 T old. When the Universe is 1 T old  the probablility of finding a particle in the square to the left of B is 1/2, the probablitlity of finding a particle at B is 0 and the probability of finding a particle 1 square to the right of B is 1/2. To illustrate this on your graph paper you can write 1/2 in the square which is one down from B and one to the left, a 0 in the square below B, and 1/2 in the square one down and one to the right from B.  Or more simply write 1, 0, 1 in those three squares and off to the left in the same row of graph paper a 1/2, which means "muliply the numbers in this row by 1/2 to get probablities of finding particles in this square." Now this process goes on forever.  Every time the clock ticks, 1/2 of the particles in any square move to the left and 1/2 move to the right.  After n ticks of the clock you are in row n.  To get probabilities of finding various particles in row n of your graph paper after n ticks of the clock divide the number in the squares in row n of the painting  by 2 to the n.  So for example in row 4 you would divide the row numbers by 2 to the 4th which is 16. So now the numbers appearing in the painting should  make some sense.  They are just the probabilities of finding particles in various square cells of this one dimensional universe as they randomly walk away from B as time evolves.  Something similar could have happened in our universe for a while, but there the particles would be walking away in 3-dimensions from the first cube in the Universe where they all resided when time began. Since in that situation each cube has 6 faces we would have 1/6th of the particles in any cell moving into an adjacent cell as the universal clock ticked away. This random walking in a universe would continue until forces came into existence which would then affect what fraction of particles in each cell which passed through each cell wall--the fractions would not all be 1/6th in the 3-dimensional case, and would be changing in time.  In the painting if you look at the triangle of numbers presented they generate what is know as Pascal's triangle (if you don't include the zeros in each row).

The reason why I call this painting "Let There be Light"  is because I show the bright yellow and white  light emerge from out of the primordial darkness.  Light, and the other sources of energy in the universe then give rise to the stars, galaxies and eventually earth an its inhabitants, such as trees.  Another reason for the title (and painting) is to show how we try to use mathematics and physics to "shed light" on how the Universe and everything in it came into existence.

For purchasing information please contact either Sung-Hee Son via: [email protected]  or Om Bleicher via: [email protected]