The Seven Questions Behind the Research, and Where Each One Stands

Ricardo Maldonado’s independent research circles seven big questions. What sparked the hot Big Bang? Why do nature’s numbers take their values? Why did matter beat antimatter? Is a black hole’s edge perfectly dark? What are dark matter and dark energy? What would the data allow for faster-than-light signals? Which path does evolution take first?

Each comes with a proposal from the author, labeled Author’s hypothesis. None is confirmed. Several have been narrowed, corrected or partly withdrawn by the project’s own checks. Our standard: the research has to survive disagreement with its founder.

How should you read this research record?

Think of a lab notebook left open, crossed-out lines included. The author posts his checkpoints on Zenodo, an open archive built by CERN, Europe’s particle-physics lab, where researchers anywhere can share work. A deposit is not peer review, and the records say so; several note that AI tools helped. A record shows the work exists, not that it is right. Our research page lists them all.

Where did the universe and its rules come from?

1. Did a higher-dimensional blast spark our Big Bang?

Question. What made the early universe hot and dense? A dimension is an independent direction; we know three of space, plus time.

Proposal. The HD-Blast idea, the author’s unconfirmed hypothesis, says our hot early universe may be the local aftermath of a brief blast in higher-dimensional space. It might leave a faint pattern in the slow gravitational waves that pulsar timing arrays track using the steady pulses of spinning dead stars. Separately, NANOGrav reported evidence of a gravitational-wave background in 2023. Pairs of giant black holes are the likeliest source, and no study has linked that signal to HD-Blast.

Status. In July 2026 the author withdrew a claim that a calculation showed emitted gravitational radiation; the check had tested the wrong kind of wave. The same record shows his five-dimensional computer checks stopping on purpose at a test they failed. The newest record (September 23, 2026) finds that the simplest version of the model does not fit together where our universe meets the extra dimension. It lists stability and a hot-Big-Bang mechanism as not established. No detection is claimed; the pulsar-data test still awaits data.

Tests. A signal shape fixed in advance and later found in pulsar data, plus a worked path from blast to hot universe.

2. Do nature’s numbers follow one hidden pattern?

Question. Physics measures numbers like the electron’s mass but cannot yet explain them.

Proposal. Many such numbers sit near whole-number powers of one small number, about 0.244. It comes from the masses of the muon and tau, heavier cousins of the electron. In the program’s early record, gravity’s strength between two electrons, written as a pure number, lands near that number raised to the 73rd power.

Status. There is a catch. Each fit may carry an extra factor between about one-half and two. The ladder’s rungs sit only about 4.1 times apart, so those windows cover nearly every gap. If you pick the power after seeing a number, about 98% of all possible values fit. So a good fit is weak evidence on its own. The newest record, on a neutrino calculation, also corrects an earlier step that relied on a flawed shortcut.

Tests. Powers fixed by theory before anyone looks, then checked against new measurements.

3. Why did matter beat antimatter?

Question. CERN explains that without some imbalance, the Big Bang would have made equal amounts of matter and antimatter, which would have destroyed each other.

Proposal. The author proposes that the leftover matter tracks a ratio of four quark masses (down, strange, bottom and top), up to a factor that still needs explaining. A field rolling through the early universe might have tipped particle reactions toward matter.

Status. Without a mechanism, the match is only a clue. The latest record on this question reports that one proposed route fails a symmetry test. A replacement remains possible, but its energy supply is unfinished. It claims no successful explanation.

Tests. A full early-universe calculation that yields the right amount of matter without breaking other limits.

What hides at the universe’s dark edges and speed limits?

4. Is a black hole’s edge perfectly dark?

Question. After two black holes merge, the new one rings like a struck bell. This ringdown carries clues about the event horizon, the point of no return.

Proposal. Quantum effects might make the horizon faintly reflective, in fixed steps tied to that same small number.

Status. GW250114 is the clearest gravitational-wave signal yet. The author’s own checks found that an apparent pattern in it could come from the analysis grid, the fixed steps a computer search tries. The latest release claims no detection. LIGO measured the main tone to about 2% and found it matched Einstein’s theory.

Tests. The same step pattern across many events, analyzed with methods fixed in advance.

5. What are dark matter and dark energy?

Question. NASA says dark matter is thought to make up about 85% of all matter. Dark energy is the unknown cause of the universe’s speeding-up expansion.

Proposal. The same number ladder might set the masses of hidden particles. The branch under test adds a short-lived hidden particle in the first minutes: would early helium and deuterium still come out right?

Status. By May a new branch had replaced the February 2026 version, and the author pledged to open no other until it was scored. The newest record fixes a software check that had wrongly passed a flawed test run. It contains no final helium or deuterium result.

Tests. A full calculation of early helium, deuterium and neutrinos, scored by rules written in advance.

6. If something could outrun light, what would the data allow?

Question. In Einstein’s relativity, faster-than-light signals could let a reply arrive before the question was sent.

Proposal. The project claims nothing outruns light. It audits a what-if: how would causality, cosmology, pulsar timing and black-hole ringing limit a hidden faster-than-light channel?

Status. An early shortcut gave way to a fuller measure, which showed a firm limit exists only under certain conditions. The latest record claims no evidence for faster-than-light physics. Its real-data step still awaits data.

Tests. Real data from pulsar-timing and black-hole teams, analyzed with a method fixed in advance.

How does life find its way?

7. Which path does evolution take first?

Question. When several mutations could solve one problem, which appears and takes hold first?

Proposal. “Mutation by Natural Dominance” says the first winner depends on how often a change appears, how reachable it is, and how likely it is to spread, multiplied together. It adds to natural selection rather than replacing it.

Status. Other researchers have shown that mutation bias can shape which changes win during adaptation (a 2022 PNAS study of yeast and bacteria). That study did not test this formula, and no experiment has yet. The current release is a software package. It claims no new experimental validation; outside lab tests are still needed.

Tests. Lab evolution experiments that measure the predictors first and watch for winners later.

What do we still not know?

For all seven, the decisive step is missing. HD-Blast has no worked path from a blast to a hot universe. The number pattern has no complete theory behind it. The antimatter idea lacks a working mechanism. The rest await real data or experiments. None has passed outside peer review or been reproduced by an independent team.

What would change the answer?

A prediction written down before the data arrive, then confirmed. Independent experts reproducing the calculations. Peer-reviewed publication that survives criticism. Any of these could move an idea beyond “Author’s hypothesis.” More on hidden dimensions: How Could We Test an Extra Dimension?

If one of these questions is yours too, keep asking it. What does an idea predict? What would prove it wrong? Has anyone checked? That habit outlasts any single answer.