The phrase
"inflationary theory" refers to a scientific concept in cosmology that suggests there was a rapid expansion of the universe shortly after the Big Bang. This theory explains how the universe grew and became the way it is today.
Full definition
In this talk I will particularly emphasize recent developments
of inflationary theory based on supergravity and string theory.
Steinhardt points out that
inflationary theory in cosmology is supposed to be highly predictive, yet in this set of observations the realisation that gravitational waves have not actually been detected seems not to have caused any doubt about the theory.
This news became a sensation in the media, 1 the results being hailed as proof of the Big
Bang inflationary theory and of the existence of the «multiverse».
The fact that inflationary theory [the current model of the Big Bang] can be tested by looking at the cosmic microwave background is remarkable to me.
He says the idea that
inflationary theory produces any observable predictions at all — even those potentially tested by BICEP2 — is based on a faulty simplification of the theory.
Paul Steinhardt of Princeton University, who helped
develop inflationary theory but is now a scathing critic of it, says that while the new study may be a blow for the theory, it pales in significance compared with inflation's other problems.
Anna Ijjas et al., «Pop Goes the Universe: The latest Astrophysical Measurements, combined with Theoretical Problems, Cast Doubt on the Long - Cherished [big bang] Inflationary Theory of the Early Cosmos and Suggest We Need New Ideas.»
In addition to explaining many features of our world which still do not have any alternative explanation,
inflationary theory made many predictions which have been already confirmed by cosmological observations.
This was during a time
when inflationary theory was being developed for the first time, and when researchers were thinking that dark matter might be some kind of elementary particle.
For example, if this parallel universe opened up via the «false vacuum» of
inflationary theory, then the new universe would be based on a different vacuum, with potentially dangerous properties; that is, the protons and neutrons of our body might not be stable, and the atoms of our body would dissolve.
The inflationary theory proposed by Alan Guth of MIT, to explain how the universe behaved in the first few trillionths of a second after the Big Bang, has been shown to be consistent with recent data derived from WMAP.
Andrei Linde, a cosmologist at Stanford University in California who developed one of the most theoretically successful models of inflation, agrees: «If these results are right,
inflationary theory has passed its most difficult test ever.»
Contrary to what the BICEP2 collaboration said initially, Parkinson's analysis suggests that the BICEP2 results, if legitimate, actually rule out any reasonable form of
inflationary theory.
His research spans particle physics, astrophysics, condensed matter physics and cosmology, and he shared the 2002 P.A.M. Dirac Medal for his role as one of the architects of
inflationary theory.
This affront to originality perhaps points to alternate models of understanding a painting similar to how things in the field of physics like comingled particles, non-locality, and
inflationary theory may point to new understandings of space, time, and objects in our universe.
The title refers to a concept in physicist Alan Guth's
inflationary theory, which postulates, among other things, the possibility of creating a universe in a lab.