I Slow-roll Inflation and Horizon Problem

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    Horizon Inflation
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The horizon problem arises from the observation that regions of the universe were not in causal contact at the time of the Big Bang, yet exhibit similar properties. Inflation addresses this by rapidly expanding regions of space, allowing them to become causally connected and larger than the observable universe. It is important to note that the universe's expansion rate does not imply exceeding the speed of light. Slow-roll inflation refers to a phase where a scalar field's potential energy dominates, leading to an equation of state akin to a cosmological constant until the conditions change. Understanding these concepts is crucial for grasping the early universe's dynamics.
AHSAN MUJTABA
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We are currently studying the inflation model in cosmology. This implies the universe accelerated expansion in the initial era.
I am a bit confused regarding the concept of the horizon problem. I have studied that the background radiation data implies that the radiations were not in causal contact at the beginning of the universe as from the big bang model. I want to know that how inflation is solving that problem?
To create a causal contact, the universe initially should expand greater than the speed of light, shouldn't it?
Also, I want to know, in simple words, what exactly is slow-roll inflation? Currently, I am following Andrew Liddle's book, but Sean Caroll's would also work.
Thanks.
 
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Inflation solves the problem by expanding causally connected regions to become larger than the observable universe.
AHSAN MUJTABA said:
To create a causal contact, the universe initially should expand greater than the speed of light, shouldn't it?
There is no such thing as "expand greater than the speed of light". The expansion of the universe is an expansion rate, not a speed.

Regarding slow roll inflation, it is difficult to gauge what you would accept as "in simple words". In short, it is an inflation driven by a scalar field that is heavily dominated by its potential energy, thus creating an equation of state that is similar to that of a cosmological constant as long as this holds. You exit the slow roll regime when this is no longer true.
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recombination_(cosmology) Was a matter density right after the decoupling low enough to consider the vacuum as the actual vacuum, and not the medium through which the light propagates with the speed lower than ##({\epsilon_0\mu_0})^{-1/2}##? I'm asking this in context of the calculation of the observable universe radius, where the time integral of the inverse of the scale factor is multiplied by the constant speed of light ##c##.
The formal paper is here. The Rutgers University news has published a story about an image being closely examined at their New Brunswick campus. Here is an excerpt: Computer modeling of the gravitational lens by Keeton and Eid showed that the four visible foreground galaxies causing the gravitational bending couldn’t explain the details of the five-image pattern. Only with the addition of a large, invisible mass, in this case, a dark matter halo, could the model match the observations...
Hi, I’m pretty new to cosmology and I’m trying to get my head around the Big Bang and the potential infinite extent of the universe as a whole. There’s lots of misleading info out there but this forum and a few others have helped me and I just wanted to check I have the right idea. The Big Bang was the creation of space and time. At this instant t=0 space was infinite in size but the scale factor was zero. I’m picturing it (hopefully correctly) like an excel spreadsheet with infinite...

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