Is it possible all matter in the universe emerges from nothing?

The answer crucially depends on what is meant by nothing. From the philosopher's nothing, nothing comes.

But the physicist's nothing is something, i.e., there is at least physical law and whatever obeys it.

For example, matter and anti-matter can materialize from the "vacuum" and, in some sense, this is something (matter) from nothing (no matter). But this presupposes the existence of quantum fields and the laws that govern them.

So, your question is actually far more subtle (and ancient) than you might grasp at this moment.


You open a box and say "there is nothing inside". In a strict mathematical (math-logic) language what you mean is: $$!\,\exists x\in ObjectsCouldBeInTheBox: InABox(x) $$ What you do next is just a "linguistic trap" -- you take a word "nothing" out your sentence. Which roughly corresponds to a "$!\exists$" part of your statement. And it's not an object. It's not even a predicate.

But "nothing" is a noun, so it feels like you can operate with it as it was an object. Well, that is a wrong feeling.

Just try to formulate the statement "Universe could emerge from nothing" strictly. I can only get something like: $$\exists x\in SetOfNothings: UniverseEmergesFrom(x) $$ And I don't know what $SetOfNothings$ is...


Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist,

Hawking writes.

http://www.phenomenica.com/2010/09/hawking-god-did-not-create-universe.html

but another question is why our universe has laws of physics?