Inflation Definition and 399 Threads

How does CMB support the predictions of "inflation"? Could explain to the novice I am, how does the CMB observation support the predictions of "inflation"?

Is it possible to relate the inflation of the universe in its early states with the current accelerated expansion of space-time?

Hi, I am not currently studying, have never studied Astrophysics, so will no doubt come across as rather inadequate in trying to clarify, what my question actually is. Please forgive me for not using appropriate terminology, and, if this forum is not for the curious laymen in the general...

As I understand it, very soon after the big bang, the process of inflation took over and caused the super size of the universe in a very short period of time. At some point, I suppose, the inflation process ceased and the universe settled down to a more 'normal' existence with normal expansion...

I've been hearing that String Theory tied to eternal inflation seems to be providing support for the multiverse. But, I'm missing something with this connection. (1) Eternal inflation seems to "predict" a truly infinite number of other Universes or, at least as time progresses, a limit...

How come a "positive-energy false vacuum would, according to general relativity, generate an exponential expansion of space"?

Inflation says that space between objects is expanding. Matter is held together by forces carried by bosons traveling at the speed of light. At the fringes of the universe inflation is warping space faster than the speed of light so it seems that there should be a horizon beyond which matter...

After the big bang, did the cosmic inflation of space occur as a gravitational wave?

Current Salary=$80,000 Current Inflation Rate=3.6% Use this rate to demonstrate that your salary will increase in relation to the inflation rate. Background: This is a question from a home loan assignment where we have to prove how to reduce your loans using various equations to forecast...

I understand that the Speed of light is the universal speed limit (I do not believe this is in question). However, I watched Steven Hawking's show this weekend on TV where they stated "10 minutes after the big bang the universe was thousands of light years across." How is this possible if...

Regarding the problem of the low entropy state at the big bang, people like Penrose, Page, Carroll etc. do not think that inflation solves the problem. I recently read and listen to Seth Lloyd and his explanations about the beginning of the universe from the point of view of entropy as...

The likelihood or actually the UNlikelihood of a satisfactory inflation episode---assuming various beyond-standard-model pictures of cosmology---has recently become a major issue. The discussion revolves around the difficulty of putting a MEASURE on the range of possible initial conditions at...

Paul Steinhardt (Princeton cosmology expert) just gave a cogent talk at Perimeter Institute criticizing inflation. http://pirsa.org/11070029/ The talk clearly lays out the problems with expansion cosmology that inflation was invented to address and again very clearly explains the ways it is...

As I understand it, somewhere close to the beginning of the universe, the universe experienced an inflationary phase when the space 'underneath' object began to expand faster than c, the speed of light. Since it wasn't the objects themselves that were expanding, there was no violation of the...

In researching inflation, I have found on various web sites, significantly different numbers regarding when did inflation start? (10E-35, 10E-28, 10E-33, etc) when did inflationi end? (10E-33, 10E-38, etc) what was the change in the diameter of the U during inflation? (10E40, 10E35...

Hi I have a question, how does inflation drive omega close to 1? I heard Alan Guth say that inflation drives omega close to 1, how is that so? I hope I can get an answer for this question, I've been looking for it for quite a while.

In the attached notes, there is a paragraph on p61 just under the eqn \dot{R}^2=\dots that explains why inflation solves the flatness problem. Can someone explain to me how this works please? I cannot get my head around it...

I say inflation, I might possibly not mean it. I've read that the expansion of the universe is accelerating, and it's a mystery why, but my question is why isn't it expected to appear that way? If the masses of galaxies are spiralling towards the center where gravity is highest, and as more...

I doing research on the state of the universe before and after Inflation for a science fiction book I am writing. In the Plank Epoch (0 to 10-43 seconds), Gravity separates. At the end of the Grand Unification Epoch (10-36 seconds), the universe is expanding enough for the universe to cool...

Are inflation and expansion different phenomena and if so what is different about them. Both terms seem to refer to a process of enlargement of the spacetime manifold that increases the distance between objects in a way that is somehow different from "ordinary" relative motion and which is not...

Wikipedia defines quantum fluctuations as: "In quantum physics, a quantum fluctuation is the temporary change in the amount of energy in a point in space,[1] arising from Werner Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. According to one formulation of the principle, energy and time can be related by...

The rubber-sheet model of gravity pictures gravity as the effect of hollows in space-time due to the mass of an object. If the model included bumps in space-time as well, the effect would be to channel all the mass into the valleys between the bumps forming a network of matter across the sheet...

Apologies in advance if this is a stupid question. I'm told the Hubble Deep Field shows galaxies as distant as 13 billion light years away. 13 billion years isn't far off the apparent age of the universe - 13.75 billion years, says Wikipedia, from estimates based on the Hubble constant...

Two spacecraft in inertial motion have relative velocity .5c. The ships have identical "grandfather" clocks very much like earthly grandfather clocks, except that the force of gravity is replaced by Coulomb repulsion. [The clocks have charged plates on either side of a charged pendulum...

Well, I was impressed, anyway... Anybody?

Almost all planets in a multiverse with eternal inflation will be much younger than our earth. Almost all conscious creatures in such a multiverse will live on young planets with an exceptionally quick evolution (related to the theoretical expected evolution speed). But we live on an old...

http://arxiv.org/abs/1103.2475 Probability of Inflation in Loop Quantum Cosmology Abhay Ashtekar, David Sloan 34 pages, 3 figures (Submitted on 12 Mar 2011) "Inflationary models of the early universe provide a natural mechanism for the formation of large scale structure. This success brings...

In the picture given to us by loop quantum graivty, the big bang is replaced by the big bounce. So 13.7 billion years our universe bounced from a previous one. In the picture given to us by eternal inflation, our big bang is just a local big bang and there is a far greater inflating sea. If the...

So I'm reading about the inflationary period and something occurred to me that never seems to be addressed in the popular physics books - what caused inflation to stop? So I buy the inflation argument, the evidence seems sound, but why would the universe expand so extraordinarily quickly for a...

What gave rise to cosmic inflation of the early Universe?

I just read this... http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0505037 Here's my condensed paraphrase, Those of you familiar with this theory tell me if I'm getting it right. As the universe expands All bodies which are not bound together move apart while those that are eventually fall together into...

I really enjoyed Sean Carroll's book "From Eternity to here" and his explanation about the connection of the arrow of time and the low-entropy event which is called big bang. There is something I did not understand though. He stated that inflation is not an explanation for the low-entropy...

Hi, I'm trying to figure out how inflation (just deSitter) solves the horizon problem, but I am stuck. I understand the solution in terms of conformal coordinates, allowing for a negative conformal time let's the lightcones of CMB intersect. Fine. But how do I see "physically" what is going on...

Hi all, I was reading about eternal inflation however one thing that remains unclear to me is that how does one explain the force behind inflation, the word "force" is perhaps a non-technical term, the more precise term is "inflation field", the chaotic inflation model says that just...

This is a basic question. If the expansion of the universe's radius is faster than c, and that speed is increasing or staying constant, how would gravity ever slow the expansion down? Gravitational fields propagate at c, so why would anyone even wonder why it's not slowing down due to gravity...

Hi, I have a question regarding the idea of eternal inflation happening in a multiverse and the topology of our universe. Looking at the current data it seems plausible that our universe is flat or slightly negatively curved, i.e. has a non-compact topology. But the idea of eternal...

What is the definition of 'inflation'? Will an increase in the demand for goods and services cause an increase in the inflation rate?

[SIZE="3"]I'm not a math student, and am an English learner. So, please reply as simple as possible. Thanks. I think literacy rate of a certain country is measured by taking the percentage of all educated persons above a defined age. Suppose that the defined age is 15 years, then if the...

During the inflation epoch, the universe expanded faster than c. Does theory allow information during this time to travel faster than c?

I was thinking about how big the universe got after inflation occured. Then I thought about Hubble's parameter. Ho = V / d (At the big bang, the distance between the two edges of the universe were zero) Ho = V / 0 Ho = ∞ km*mpc / s Therefore, the rate of the expansion must have been...

I'm reading Roger Penrose's Cycles of Time. On p. 124 he's explaining why he thinks inflation doesn't solve the mystery of why the universe started out in a low-entropy state. He argues that a high-entropy collapsing FLRW universe would consist of "a horrendous mess of congealing black holes,"...

How is the inflation theory supported by/related to the matter-antimatter annihilation concept of quantum mechanics?

Its been argued that inflation needs the initial conditions to be finely tuned: eg: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflation_(cosmology)#Fine-tuning_problem does this paper resolve this problem...

My daughter is a senior in High School (local public, not private) and just found out her GPA (4.0 unadjusted, ~4.4 adjusted for AP classes) ranks her 44 out of 450 seniors in her school. While I'm delighted she is in the top 10% of the class, I think it's absurd that 43 seniors have better...

The current theory regarding the beginning of the universe insists that there was a brief period of inflation where the growth of the universe out paced the speed of light growing to light years in diameter in a few minutes. How is it possible?

Economists try to reduce inflation to a single quantity in order to plot changes in such things as real income and real GDP. However, the changes in buying habits do not change equally for people of all income levels. 85% of productivity increases of the 35% increase in productivity we have...

Eternal Inflation "Time Will End" This paper came out last week and looks very interesting but of course relies on M-Theory: http://arxiv.org/abs/1009.4698

Hartle Hawking suggest probabilities for observations (eternal inflation picture) http://arxiv.org/abs/1009.2525 Eternal inflation without metaphysics James Hartle, S.W. Hawking, Thomas Hertog 4 pages (Submitted on 13 Sep 2010) "In the usual account of eternal inflation the universe is...

claim: the red light observed from distant galaxies proves they are moving away. (doppler effect right?) null: because light becomes red diffracting through a medium like space dust or even by gravitation. sorry if I'm off base or 50years behind, just a general "yes/no" or "get out of my forum...

http://arxiv.org/abs/1008.2768 "To pursue our analysis further, we must determine more carefully the relationship between the renormalization scale µ and the density ρ. One appealing choice, advocated by Weinberg in his analysis of inflation in asymptotically safe gravity [3], is to take the...