SELF-REPLICATION COSMOLOGY: THE PRIMORDIAL FIELD AND THE FIRST FLUCTUATION — THE ORIGIN OF MATTER AND THE ONSET OF COSMIC EVOLUTION

This paper proposes a cosmogonic hypothesis that does not invoke an initial singularity. It is postulated that a single continuous field exists primarily — a homogeneous "mono-substance" not composed of particles, which itself forms space. Particles are not primary objects but local condensations of the field, consistent with the tenet of quantum field theory in which fields are primary and particles are their excitations. The meaning of "beginning" is substantially clarified: in the non-singular solution of the self-replication model the past is infinite, so what begins is not existence but evolution. The initial state is identified with the fixed point of the dynamics Γ = 3H, at which particle creation exactly compensates dilution by expansion; the Universe may remain in it indefinitely. The first fluctuation is the event that destabilizes this equilibrium and sets expansion in motion. A requirement on the microphysics of the replication mechanism follows: the creation rate must respond to density faster than dilution grows, Γ′(H_max) > 3 — a property characteristic of autocatalytic processes. The status of the work is stated plainly: it is the most fundamental and the most speculative part of the self- replication programme, yet it is connected to the testable through the relation H∞ = Γ/3 and through the stated requirement on the form of Γ(H).