What gave rise to cosmic inflation of the early Universe?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion centers around the origins of cosmic inflation in the early Universe, exploring various theoretical frameworks and speculative ideas related to the phenomenon. Participants engage with concepts from cosmology, general relativity, and different inflationary models.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory, Technical explanation, Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants mention that cosmologists utilize General Relativity to describe the evolution of energy particles leading to a singularity that underwent inflation, with speculative ideas about the inflaton's origin, such as branes colliding in higher dimensions.
  • One participant expresses a belief in the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation measurements as evidence of the universe's expansion, emphasizing the energetic nature of the inflation process.
  • Another participant states that the exact cause of inflation remains unknown, suggesting that future discoveries may clarify the nature of inflation and its origins.
  • Chaotic inflation theory is introduced, with participants noting the existence of various scalar field functions that could simulate inflation, as highlighted by Linde.
  • Concerns are raised regarding chaotic inflation's generic nature, suggesting that if it is detected without deviations, it may not provide significant insights into the underlying causes of inflation.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express a range of views on the origins of cosmic inflation, with no consensus on a specific model or explanation. Multiple competing theories and ideas are presented, indicating ongoing debate and uncertainty.

Contextual Notes

The discussion reflects limitations in current understanding, including the dependence on theoretical models and the lack of experimental evidence to distinguish between competing inflationary scenarios.

Soumya_M
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What gave rise to cosmic inflation of the early Universe?
 
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Cosmologists use General Relativity to explain each stage of higher and higher energy particles all way back to a single inflaton or singularity which underwent inflation. Beyond this lies several speculative ideas for what gave rise to the inflaton and inflation. One interesting one is Branes in other dimensions colliding and spawning the inflaton and our space time.

I am not really mathematical hence I do not follow the GR predictions, but I am a believer in the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation measurements which show a black body spectrum red shifted approximately 1000 times, hence the expansion of our observable space time.

Even if we step over the GR part it is pretty obvious that something very violent and energetic was required to inflate the entire universe especially when the rest of the universe might be 10 to power 30 times the size of the observable universe.
 
Last edited:
Soumya_M said:
What gave rise to cosmic inflation of the early Universe?
We don't know yet. When we discover precisely what inflation is, if we're very lucky, perhaps that will come along with a specific model for how inflation began as well. In the mean time, theorists have come up with a great many ideas, but we don't yet have experiments to distinguish between them.
 
Choatic inflation theory has many possible scaler field functions that may simulate inflation. As Linde pointed out, there are many possibilities.
 
edgepflow said:
Choatic inflation theory has many possible scaler field functions that may simulate inflation. As Linde pointed out, there are many possibilities.
Well, Chaotic inflation merely proposes that the potential energy is quadratic. The problem is, near enough the minimum, almost any potential energy will be quadratic, so if we detect chaotic inflation, and no deviation from it, then we will obtain basically zero information about what caused inflation. Unfortunately, because chaotic inflation is so generic, it is the most likely.
 

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