When the universe begins, the angle of rotation (phase) of the wheel is zero. At this point, everything moves through space at the speed of causality: both bosons (electromagnetic waves) and fermions (matter). At this point, there’s too much movement through space and collisions happening, nothing can truly stick. The collisions happening at this stage are what give rise to another kind of wave which we’ll take about later: gravitational waves.
As the angle (let’s call it theta) ticks forward (goes from 0 to pi), fermions start trading their momentum through space to momentum through time until pi, where these two reverse.
When theta reaches pi, we reach the most stable period for matter. This period is what gives matter the time to coalesce into bigger structures we see as galaxies, stars, planets, etc.
The step size (how much theta advances to the next value) is given by the amount of energy in the universe and Planck’s constant. Bigger universes have unimaginable small delta theta (step size), while smaller universes have a bigger step size (they don’t tick as smoothly).