|
Inflation (cosmology)
|
Part of a series on
Physical cosmology
Big Bang · Universe
Age of the universe
Chronology of the universe
Inflation · Nucleosynthesis
Backgrounds
Gravitational wave (GWB)
Microwave (CMB) · Neutrino (CNB)
Hubble's law · Redshift
Metric expansion of space
FLRW metric · Friedmann equations
Future of an expanding universe
Ultimate fate of the universe
Components
Lambda-CDM model
Dark energy · Dark matter
Structure
Shape of the universe
Galaxy filament · Galaxy formation
Large quasar group
Large-scale structure
Reionization · Structure formation
BOOMERanG
Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE)
Illustris project
Planck space observatory
Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS)
2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey ("2dF")
Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy
Probe (WMAP)
Aaronson
Alfvén
Alpher
Bharadwaj
Copernicus
de Sitter
Dicke
Ehlers
Einstein
Ellis
Friedman
Galileo
Gamow
Guth
Hawking
Hubble
Lemaître
Mather
Newton
Penrose
Penzias
Rubin
Schmidt
Smoot
Suntzeff
Sunyaev
Tolman
Wilson
Zel'dovich
List of cosmologists
Discovery of cosmic microwave
background radiation
History of the Big Bang theory
Religious interpretations of
the Big Bang theory
Timeline of cosmological theories
Category
Cosmology portal
Astronomy portal
v
t
e
In physical cosmology, cosmic inflation, cosmological inflation, or just inflation is the exponential expansion of space in the early universe. The inflationary epoch lasted from 10-36 seconds after the Big Bang to sometime between 10-33 and 10-32 seconds. Following the inflationary period, the Universe continues to expand, but at a less accelerated rate.The inflationary hypothesis was developed in the 1980s by physicists Alan Guth and Andrei Linde. It explains the origin of the large-scale structure of the cosmos. Quantum fluctuations in the microscopic inflationary region, magnified to cosmic size, become the seeds for the growth of structure in the Universe (see galaxy formation and evolution and structure formation). Many physicists also believe that inflation explains why the Universe appears to be the same in all directions (isotropic), why the cosmic microwave background radiation is distributed evenly, why the Universe is flat, and why no magnetic monopoles have been observed.While the detailed particle physics mechanism responsible for inflation is not known, the basic picture makes a number of predictions that have been confirmed by observation. The hypothetical field thought to be responsible for inflation is called the inflaton.
^ "First Second of the Big Bang". How The Universe Works 3. 2014. Discovery Science.
^ Chapter 17 of Peebles (1993).
^ Tyson, Neil deGrasse and Donald Goldsmith (2004), Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution, W. W. Norton & Co., pp. 84–5.
^ Steinhardt, Paul J. (2011). "The inflation debate: Is the theory at the heart of modern cosmology deeply flawed?" (Scientific American, April; pp. 18-25). "...in?ationary theory is powerfully predictive. For example, numerous observations of the cosmic microwave background radiation and the distribution of galaxies have con?rmed that the spatial variations in energy in the early universe were nearly scale-invariant."
^ Tsujikawa, Shinji (28 Apr 2003). "Introductory review of cosmic inflation". p. 4257. arXiv:hep-ph/0304257. Bibcode:2003hep.ph....4257T. In fact temperature anisotropies observed by the COBE satellite in 1992 exhibit nearly scale-invariant spectra as predicted by the in?ationary paradigm. Recent observations of WMAP also show strong evidence for in?ation.
^ Guth, Alan H. (1997). The Inflationary Universe: The Quest for a New Theory of Cosmic Origins. Basic Books. pp. 233–234. ISBN 0201328402.
|
Created By:
System
|
|
|
|
|