The Physics of Creation

The description of Vittoria and Vetra's physics breakthrough is a little vague, but it's possible Dan Brown means to suggest that they had found a way to create anti-matter in a new way, where the energy required is less than that given by E = mc². If so, this would indeed be revolutionary - the equivalent of a 'perpetual motion machine' that can produce limitless free energy.

Such a discovery would certainly change all of physics, and indeed the world. Since this would be creating something out of nothing (in latin: creatio ex nihilo) then there are obvious connections to religious concepts, as she goes on to note. But in a move that seems to contradict this argument, she goes on to say the "Big Bang and Genesis can be explained simply by accepting the presence of an enormous source of energy" (p60) apparently believing this would provide a newly scientific explanation for the religious concept of Creation. But in fact her description is very similar to the current models of the early universe, i.e. a mind-bogglingly dense point of intense energy. Unfortunately, such a description does not serve as an explanation of Creation since the 'enormous source of energy' still needs to be accounted for.

It is true that some people take this to be synonymous with God, but this is logically equivalent to a straightforward non-scientific claim that God is the source of the Universe/Energy - regardless of how the Universe came to exist.

Since the big-bang theory gained popularity there has been a continuing discussion on whether it is theologically important. For more see: Is the Big Bang a Moment of Creation? and Big Bang Cosmology and Creation Theology.

While anti-matter and the 'God-particle' do not relate directly to the concept of Creation, other areas of physics research do come close, notably quantum-mechanics and quantum cosmology. For more, see Quantum Cosmology and Theological Responses to Quantum Cosmology.

Notes

• In the book, Vittoria's new physics discovery (which she describes as creating matter - and a new universe - out of nothing) sounds very similar to what actually happens in high energy physics laboratories like CERN. Certainly, a new universe is not created, but they do see "matter, blossoming out of nothing. An incredible display of subatomic fireworks." However, the matter that is created is 'paid for' in full by the energy imparted by the collision of other particles. The trade is governed by the equation E = mc². The same trade takes place in nuclear reactions; the energy released by an atomic bomb is precisely equal to the mass that's destroyed in the fission reaction multiplied by the speed of light squared. Furthermore, quantum theory allows for matter/anti-matter 'virtual particle' pairs to spontaneously appear and disappear - with a net energy difference of zero. As strange as this sounds, there is some experimental support for it in the discovery of Hawking radiation and the evaporation of black holes.
• The book notes that Father Lemaitre preceded Edwin Hubble in his support for Big Bang Cosmology, but it should also be mentioned that Lemaitre's work was derived from Einstein's equations (p58). For more on the Big Bang and Lemaitre, see this link.

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