As I said, gravity is NOT quantized.
A combination of relativity and quantum mechanics, or a unified theory of everything, assumes that there are elementary particles of gravity (gravitons) in the same way that there are elementary particles of mass/energy (photons) and that both are governed by a single physical law.
To say that quantum loop theory can be tested is to assume that the gravity necessary to warp space and time can be artificially generated, or that we have a way to observe infinitessimally small quantities like the planck time, planck lenght and planck energy - the threshold within which the theory of quantum gravity have any predictive effect.
I don't think you understand.
To say that there is a mathematical model that governs the big bang itself is ludicrous.
The planck time (1 second = 1.855x10^43) is the closest that theoretical physics has gone to the big bang because any closer to this, general relativity BREAKS DOWN into a singularity.
The problem with the big bounce is that it says NOTHING about horizon or homogeneity.
Unlike inflation, which at least had the audacity to assume that the rate of expansion of the infant universe exceeded the speed of light more than a thousand times over - thereby ensuring a universe that is connected and homogenous.
Although how this affects the invariance of c is anybody's guess.
But it ends up exactly that - merely fascinating.
How can you observe a space-time singularity - a phenomenon that has no length, no time and infinite mass, eh?
At the heart of ALL cosmological models is such a SINGULARITY.
Which is EXACTLY how science proposes to end the SAME inifnite regress - via a space-time singularity.
And yet, you do not find yourself amusing for thinking this way, do you?
I thought as much.
It is better in that it makes no apologies for its INEVITABLE conclusion.
That all contingent beings must have a cause.
That an infinite chain of causality is impossible.
That there must be a first cause that is both infinite and incontingent.
Something that is incontingent causes itself.
Dark energy is merely the energy density of vacuum and represents the outward (tension) exerted by vacuum against the inward pull of gravity. Einstein had this in mind when he included the cosmological constant 'fudge factor' in his field equation, and which he referred to as his 'greatest blunder'.
Of course, interest in the cosmological constant, lambda, has been revived due to hubble's observation of an expanding universe. It is the cornerstone of the inflationary model and is being used to explain the horizon and homogeneity problems in cosmology.
The thing is that lambda itself is a problem. With it, we would have a universe with nothing but lambda well before the 15 billion-year estimate of the the universe's age.
