There have been many other refinements and revisions since Guth 's original model, such as the "new inflationary model" of Russian physicist Andrei Linde, who had been working on an inflation theory independently as had Paul Steinhardt and Andreas Albrecht. This new model hypothesized a slow as opposed to Guth 's fast breaking of symmetry, and the creation of many "bubble universes " just one of which contains our own observable universe.
A later proposal by Linde, known as the "chaotic inflationary model", hypothesized that the repulsive antigravity effect was caused by a "spin-0 field" rather than any kind of phase transition as Guth had thought. Linde's work, and that of fellow Russian Alex Vilenkin, has also given rise to the idea of "eternal inflation ", where the inflation as a whole actually never stops, but small localized energy discharges within the overall energy field - almost like sparks of static electricity, but on on a cosmic scale - create small points of matter in the form of tiny particles.
Such a process may represent the birth of a new universe , such as our own. Beginning in this way with what we have called a Big Bang , this new universe then itself proceeds to expand, although at a much slower rate than the continuing inflation outside of it.
The rest of space outside of that universe is still full of undischarged energy , still expanding at enormous speed, and new universes , new Big Bangs , are occurring all the time.
The theory of cosmic inflation , then, supports the scenario in which our universe is just one among many parallel universes in a multiverse. As we will see in later sections, some corroborating evidence for such a scenario also arises from work on dark energy , on superstring theory and on quantum theory.
However, the idea of a hypothetical multiverse , which we can never see or prove, is anathema to many physicists, and many critics still remain. How fast are we traveling through space?? How fast does light travel? How far is it to space, the Moon, the Sun, the stars, etc? How many stars are there? How does the Sun shine? What different types of stars are there? What is the human body and the Earth, the Sun, the Universe made of? What if the history of the universe were squeezed into the period of one year?
What are the coldest and the hottest objects in the universe? Are there any drawbacks to living in a multiverse? That leads to fundamental questions about the meaning of probability. And probability is crucial to physicists because our basic theory is quantum theory, which is based on probabilities, so we had better know what they mean. To explore more of the biggest questions in science, click here.
Already a subscriber? Sign in. Thanks for reading Scientific American. Create your free account or Sign in to continue. See Subscription Options. Illustration by Falconieri Visuals What can inflation tell us about the forces that hold our universe together?
Support science journalism. Knowledge awaits. See Subscription Options Already a subscriber? Create Account See Subscription Options. Inflation was invented to explain a couple of features of the universe that are really hard to explain without it. That seems a naked assault on the laws of thermodynamics. Cosmic inflation solves these problems at a stroke. That ironed out wrinkles in its early chaotic self and meant that even now far-flung parts were once in close contact, so could swap heat.
Inflation is now a built-in piece of our standard story of cosmic evolution.
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