A cycle forms where particles attract each other into one mass until a reaction occurs causing an "explosion" where all the particles separate from each other until they come together again.

What part of the cycle is the universe in right now?

not sure what u mean
particles devoid of force carriers ?
then it would be neither

particles with force carriers ?
then it would be both

if you're trying to alluded to the twin facts of gravity and the universes expansion , they are unrelated , as its space itself which is expanding
its not that the matter is flying away from each other

This post was edited by chivas_regal on Mar 16 2012 12:13am

I'm not sure you understand the intermediaries of the situation.

It's far from black and white =/

This is one possibility, but our current (unproved) hypothesis is that the universe is spreading out faster than its escape velocity. It may not all come back to each other, then we'd experience heat death in each individual area.

1) the big bang wasnt an explosion
2) the accelerating rate of universe expansion is pretty strong evidence against a "big crunch" theory if thats what your suggesting

[QUOTE=powwpoww,Mar 15 2012 10:51pm]A cycle forms where particles attract each other into one mass until a reaction occurs causing an "explosion" where all the particles separate from each other until they come together again.

What part of the cycle is the universe in right now?[/QUOTE]

Id say expansion....... but its only a theory......