Inflationary theory

[vincentm]

I was hoping someone can give a more "dumbed" down explantion of this for me? I know that it deals with "how the big bang started, but i'm kind of having a hard time wrapping my head around this.

[Garth]

Actually Inflation deals with just after the "the big bang started".

There are three coincidence problems with the 'raw' GR cosmological model, caused by its acceleration decelerating, viz: the horizon, the density and the smoothness problem and a fourth 'magnetic monopole' problem.

These were resolved by Inflation theory, first proposed by Alan Guth in 1981 by combining insights from fundamental physics with cosmology. In it a sudden release of energy at a phase change in the 'Higgs field' causes the universe to undergoe a short impulse of explosive acceleration in its expansion.

The theory makes some predictions which appear to be verified by cosmological observations but it also requires the existence of a fundamental particle called the Higgs boson, or alternatively, Inflaton, which have not been found even after over twenty years of intense research.

You can read more here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_inflation)

Garth