By adding a shock wave to the explosive origins of our universe, two mathematicians have come up with an alternative scenario for the Big Bang theory. Mathematics professors Joel Smoller, University of Michigan, and Blake Temple, UC Davis, linked two fundamental solutions of Einstein's gravitational equations in an exact solution with a shock wave. A shock-wave explosion adds disorder to what cosmology theory has assumed was an orderly expanding universe and also removes the mathematical certainty that the entire universe burst from a single point. "This is the first physically meaningful exact solution of Einstein's equations that has a shock wave in it," Temple says. "If someone doesn't like the idea that the universe burst from a single point, they could use this as a model for exploring another scenario for how the universe came to be." Reported in a recent issue of Physical Review D, the research was funded by a Guggenheim fellowship (Temple), by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Office of Naval Research and the UC Davis Institute of Theoretical Dynamics.