What was first: energy or the Big Bang?

The problem with cosmology is the universe’s size. When we think that gravity stretches light that means that massive objects seem to be at longer distances than they really are. The virtual redshift means that massive objects stretch light waves. And that means we see light as more red because of that effect than it really is. So because gravity stretches light all objects seem to be more red than they are.  When we look at objects from different angles the gravity and curvature of light make images distorted. Black holes pull light waves almost straight. And it's possible. The massive gravity pulls electromagnetic radiation longer so much that the visible light or IR radiation turns straight into radio waves. 

Did photons or energy exist before the Big Bang? The answer is that energy cannot come from anywhere. So there should be some kind of wave movement that focuses on the event where material and energy formed in the form as we know them. When we think of the Big Bang as a series of events that turned material and energy into form as we know them, we must realize that even if the Big Bang was only one single event there could be material that is impossible in our universe. In the just born universe energy level was higher. 

And maybe the higher energy quarks like bottom and top quarks could form short-term material like “hydrogen”. Their top quark and bottom quarks form the “proton” and the muon orbits that structure. Those things are impossible in the modern universe. And those structures vanished just after the Big Bang. Just after the Big Bang formed matter and antimatter. Then those particles and their mirror particles formed giant annihilation. So maybe the asymmetry in the wave-particle duality happened when some event like a primordial black hole pushed a little bit of material away from the antimatter. That great annihilation can form black holes because their energy level is so high. 

There are models of the Big Bang as a series of events, and some astronomers searched the place where that event happened. But there is no visible evidence of that place’s existence. There are theories that maybe some material formed a black hole just after the Big Bang. And that black hole could form the center of the universe. The idea is taken from the nuclear bomb explosions. When the Big Bang happened it pushed material into a ring-shaped structure. 

There formed a massive quantum vacuum or cosmic void in the middle of that ring. Then part of the material could fall back to the point where the Big Bang happened. When we think about models there the Big Bang was a series of events. We can imagine a situation where in the space before the Big Bang two strings or superstrings impacted. That impact formed the ring-shaped string called a photon. That photon started to form a quantum vacuum in it. Then that thing caused an effect where the quantum fields started to focus around that point. Then that energy broke out from that point. 

There are also models where the giant “photon” surrounds our universe whose geometrical shape can be like some kind of flat disk. The normal model says that the photons were formed seconds after the Big Bang. So could photons exist before the Big Bang? That could require the existence of the multiverse. The thing is that if those “photons” existed before the Big Bang I must say that they might have very little thing to do with the modern photons. And maybe the Big Bang began when those things formed. 

In String and Brane-theories the thing that began the Big Bang was the hole that formed in the wave movement before the Big Bang. That hole caused the upper Brane or dimension to fall through the energy bottom and smash with that wave movement. That pushed energy into that point forming the particles and energy. So, particles are droplets from the energy impact that happened a long time ago. 

The expansion of the universe supports superstring theory where the universe exists in the giant superstring. That expansion happens because the universe and material release energy into supersting.  In the newest theory time is the only real thing in the universe. And that means everything happens in and because of time. 

https://www.livescience.com/space/cosmology/did-light-exist-at-the-beginning-of-the-universe