-43 seconds of
the universe. The physical scale was so small
and hot, the known forces may have acted differently.
Inflation
In the first 10-43 seconds, the standard
theory predicts that Inflation occurred. This was a brief
moment in time when gravity REPELLED, rather than attracted and
the universe expanded by a factor of 1025
in this short time. This inflation may have been what CAUSED the
Big Bang.
Quark Soup
Now the universe is expanding at near the speed of light. The
temperature and density are still extremely high. This energy
created matter, following Einstein's equation: E =
mc2, in the form of matter and anti-matter
pairs (quarks and anti-quarks). Sometimes the quarks/anti-quarks
annihilated back into pure energy.
Big Freeze Out
As the universe continued to expand, it cooled. By a lucky
twist of fate, more quarks than anti-quarks had been formed
(1 in a billion!). The energy of the universe soon became too
low (below 1013 K) to create anti-quarks/quarks
pairs.
However they continued to annihilate each other,
leaving behind an excess of quarks, which went on to form
protons and neutrons.
The expanding universe, made up of matter and radiation, continued to create electron-positron pairs for about 5 seconds. When the universe dropped below a billion degrees, no more of these pairs were created.