Alan Guth’s Inflation Theory is a pioneering work. Hitherto, cosmologists had only defined what the big bang actually was without addressing the reasons for the event. Before, the inflation theory, there were several loopholes in the big bang model. In fact, some even contradicted the theory of relativity. Further the basic cosmological principles of homogeneity and isotropy also went unexplained.
The Theory of Inflation solved many of these conundrums.
Inflation is the phase our universe passed through immediately after the big bang. In it, it expanded rapidly leading to a flat and homogeneous universe as we know it today. The inflation phase last for a short while (10-32s) and then the universe continued to expand leisurely. By installing this phase in the main big bang theory, several problems were solved.
The isotropy of the universe was a double edged sword: on one hand it strengthened the cosmological principles and the Big Bang theory, while on the other it violated the principles of relativity. This was known as the horizon problem. The conventional big bang model did not allow for such isotropy. In general physics any sort of physical interaction cannot occur faster than the speed of light. This implies that the early universe, as it was expanding, did not get time to reach an equilibrium configuration. Here an analogy can be used; heat flows from a region of high temperature to a region of low temperature, creating an equal temperature environment after some time i.e homogeneity. Similarly, the homogeneity which we see in the universe must be a result of this exchange interaction. The conventional model showed that the universe never had time to do all that, and for the homogeneity we see today, interactions musty have taken place faster than the speed of light. This paradox was solved by the rapid inflation (as suggested by Guth). According to it, before the inflation, the universe was casually connected allowing for the system to even out. After that, inflation expanded the universe while maintaining the homogeneous properties. This model is corroborated by the Cosmic Background Radiation which shows exemplary uniformity – not only it its spread all over the universe, it shows fluctuations in only 1 part per 1000!
Another gaping hole in the Big Bang theory was the spatial flatness of the universe, which occurs due to the value of Ω (critical density : current density). If the value of Ω is less than one, then the universe would contract to a singularity instead of expanding (which was not happening) and if it was greater than one, then gravity would not have been able to coalesce gas to form stars and galaxies. Data from WMAP and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey show that the value of Ω is within 1% of unity. The big question that follows is why? It is very peculiar that the value is just it needs to be to avoid a gravitational collapse. This also implied that the universe must have been beyond the critical density in the past, which in turn suggested a collapse. This meant that something was constantly fine-tuning the value of Ω. Inflation offered a way out. It said that by rapidly increasing in size after the big bang, the universe was able to smoothen out the non flatness which can result in values of Ω close to 1.
Aside from these two problems was the magnetic monopole problem. According to the Grand Unified Theories, magnetic monopoles should arise in very high temperatures – such as those found in the big bang and continue to exist. Detailed observations, however, failed to produced any indication that that these monopoles where present in the universe. Inflation had a solution for this too: by rapidly expanding the universe, inflation spread these monopoles so widely that no one can actually observe them. By making the universe very large, inflation infinitely diluted the concentration of the magnetic monopoles. Guth originally did not include this idea in his paper The Inflationary Universe as he thought that it was related to problems in the Grand Unified Theories themselves. This may be a small point but it needs to be highlighted as it contains the essence of scientific research that one’s conclusions should be testable, verifiable, based on solid empirical foundations. Guth had taken over some of the most baffling puzzles in one of the most fundamental problems and solved them successfully by developing his ideas from observations of a couple of years. His ideas were buttressed by gradual discoveries, Cosmic Background Radiation being one of them.
The Inflation theory was generally accepted and received immense acclaim in scientific circles because of its solid foundations. Today, data from WMAP and Sloan Sky Surveys shows that the universe is not completely isotropic, but nevertheless the isotropy along with other problems have only one reliable explanation – Alan Guth’s Inflationary Universe Theory.
References
1.The Inflationary Universe, Alan H. Guth, Basic Books 1997
2.The Inflationary Universe, Chapter 21: Models of the Universe, Discovering the Cosmos by R. C. Bless, pg 539-540
3.Cosmic Inflation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_inflation)
4.WAS COSMIC INFLATION THE 'BANG' OF THE BIG BANG? A. Guth (http://nedwww.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Guth/Guth_contents.html)
Comments
Our Inability To Create Singularity
A. From "Strings Link the Ultracold with the Superhot"
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/42632/title/Strings_Link_the_...
Perfect liquids suggest theory’s math mirrors something real
"When the universe was very young, and still superhot from the aftermath of the Big Bang, plasma should have been the only state of matter around. And that’s what scientists at Brookhaven expected to see when they smashed gold ions together at 99.99 percent of the speed of light using a machine called RHIC (for Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider). RHIC physicists thought the ion collisions would melt the gold’s protons and neutrons into a hot plasma of quarks and gluons at a temperature of a trillion kelvins, replicating conditions similar to those a microsecond after the birth of the universe. But instead of a gaslike plasma, the physicists reported in 2005, RHIC served up a hot quark soup, behaving more like a liquid than a plasma or gas."
B. The expectation of Brookhaven scientists was a bit unrealistic
The "aftermath of the Big Bang" lasted much less than 10^-35 seconds. This is evidenced by the fact that "Gravity Is THE Manifestation Of The Onset Of Cosmic Inflation Cataclysm" :
http://www.the-scientist.com/community/posts/list/184.page#1950
and
http://www.the-scientist.com/community/posts/list/184.page#1982
With all respect due to the scientists at Brookhaven it is very difficult to expect that they can recreate the state of pre big-bang energy-mass singularity.
Commonsense is still the best scientific approach.
Respectfully suggesting,
Dov Henis
(Comments From The 22nd Century)
EVOLUTION Beyond Darwin 200
http://www.physforum.com/index.php?showtopic=14988&st=405&#entry396201
http://www.the-scientist.com/community/posts/list/100/122.page#1407
============================
Commonsensible PS To
Gravity Limits Link Ultracold And Superhot,
Our Inability To Create Singularity
A. From "Strings Link the Ultracold with the Superhot"
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/42632/title/Strings_Link_the_...
A new truth always has to contend with many difficulties,” the German physicist Max Planck said decades ago. “If it were not so, it would have been discovered much sooner.”
B. IMO gravity is attempted reversal of inflation
To me, a simple uninformed one, E=mc^2 is a derived formula, whereas E=Total[m(1 + D)] is a commonsensical descriptive concept.
I intuitively regard both the ultracold and superhot liquids as being in a confined space and "striving but unable" to overcome D, to render D=0.
I also intuitively regard accelerated collisions smashups as attempted "reverse inflations" in the sense that Newton's law of universal gravitation seems to me as "reverse inflation".
Dov Henis
(Comments From The 22nd Century)
Dov Henis (not verified) | 04/20/09 | 10:30 AM
On Energy, Mass, Gravity, And Galaxies Clusters -
A Commonsensible Recapitulation
A. "Heavyweight galaxies in the young universe"
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/42419/title/Heavyweight_galax...
New observations of full-grown galaxies in the young universe may force astrophysicists to revise their leading theory of galaxy formation, at least as it applies to regions where galaxies congregate into clusters.
B. Some brief notes in "Light On Dark Matter?", at
http://www.physforum.com/index.php?showtopic=22994&st=0&#entry373127
- "Galaxy Clusters Evolved By Dispersion, Not By Conglomeration"
- Introduction of E=Total[m(1 + D)]
- "Dark Energy And Matter And The Emperor's New Clothes"
- "Evolutionary Cosmology: Ordained Or Random"
- "“Movie” Of Microwave Pulse Transitioning From Quantum To Classical Physics"
- "Broken Symmetry" Is Physics' Term Of Biology's "Evolution"
- "A Glimpse Of Forces-Matter-Life Unified Theory"
C. Commonsensible conception of gravity
1. According to the standard model, which describes all the forces in nature except gravity, all elementary particles were born massless. Interactions with the proposed Higgs field would slow down some of the particles and endow them with mass. Finding the Higgs — or proving it does not exist — has therefore become one of the most important quests in particle physics.
However, for a commonsensible primitive mind with a commonsensible universe represented by
E=Total[m(1 + D)], this conceptual equation describes gravity. It does not explain gravity. It describes it. It applies to the whole universe and to every and all specific cases, regardless of size.
2. Thus gravity is simply another face of the total cosmic energy. Thus gravity is THE cosmic parent of phenomena such as black holes and life. It is the display of THE all-pervasive-embracive strained space texture, laid down by the expanding galactic clusters, also noticed in the expanding energy backlashes into various constructs of temporary constrained energy packages.
3. "Extrapolation of the expansion of the universe backwards in time to the early hot dense "Big Bang" phase, using general relativity, yields an infinite density and temperature at a finite time in the past.
At age 10^-35 seconds the Universe begins with a cataclysm that generates space and time, as well as all the matter and energy the Universe will ever hold."
At D=0, E was = m and both E and m were, together, all the energy and matter the Universe will ever hold. Since the onset of the cataclysm E remains constant and m diminishes as D increases.
The increase of D is the inflation, followed by expansion, of what became the galactic clusters.
At 10^-35 seconds, D in E=Total[m(1 + D)] was already a fraction of a second above zero. This is when gravity started. This is what started gravity. At this instance starts the space texture, starts the straining of the space texture, and starts the "space texture memory", gravity, that will eventually overcome expansion and initiate re-impansion back to singularity.
D. Commonsensible conception of the forces other than gravity
The forces other than gravity are, commonsensibly, forces involved in conjunction with evolution:
http://royalsociety.org/downloaddoc.asp?id=4770
The farthest we go in reductionism in Everything, including in Life, we shall still end up with wholism, until we arrive at energy. Energy is the base element of everything and of all in the universe. At the beginning was the energy singularity, at the end will be near zero mass and an infinite dispersion of the beginning energy, and in-between, the universe undergoes continuous evolution consisting of myriad energy-to-energy and energy-to-mass-to-energy transformations.
The universe, and everything in it, are continuously evolving, and all the evolutions are intertwined.
E. PS: On Evolution of Cosmic Energy And Mass
As mass is just another face of energy it is commonsensible to regard not only life, but mass in general, as a format of temporarily constrained energy.
It therefore ensues that whereas the expanding cosmic constructs, the galaxies clusters, are - overall - continuously converting "their share" of original pre-inflation mass back to energy, the overall evolution within them, within the clusters, is in the opposite direction, temporarily constrained energy packages are precariuosly forming and "doing best" to survive as long as "possible"...
Dov Henis
(Comments From The 22nd Century)
Life's Manifest
http://www.the-scientist.com/community/posts/list/112.page#578
EVOLUTION Beyond Darwin 200
http://www.physforum.com/index.php?showtopic=14988&st=405&#entry396201
http://www.the-scientist.com/community/posts/list/100/122.page#1407