- #1
Rorkster2
- 65
- 0
I understand what inflation is, but what are the reasons behind why scientists are near definitive that it indeed happened? Please go as in depth, complex, or over the top as you need/want.
Last edited:
Because it fails to resolve either problem [flatness / horizon]. Try to refrain from proposing a personal theory here.Rorkster2 said:So why do they take the position of a singularity and its spacetime 'inflating' many times the speed of light, instead of a position of the Big Bang came from a tremendously massive object that had a volume many light years across?
Simon Bridge said:Because that (big bang from a very large structure) would be begging the question of where the volume for such an object came from. Again, it's simpler.
Of course, one may equally ask why not just consider the Universe to have always been much as it is now (steady state)?
Chronos said:Because it fails to resolve either problem [flatness / horizon]. Try to refrain from proposing a personal theory here.
(1) That's not a pretense! - it really does beg the question in the same way as the statement "God created the Universe" begs the question "who created God?"What I'm not seeing as clearly though is why its written off having a singularity is simpler on the pretense of its begging the question of where the volume came from initially.
Yep - perfectly legit. However, a macroscopic initial state also needs to explain the matter/energy as well as where all the space-time came from. "Where the singularity came from?" is a much easier problem. (note: I didn't mean to say it's simpler because the other begs the question, I meant it's simpler, in addition to the other begging the question. But since you got me thinking about it...)Wouldn't asking where the infinitely dense singularity came from be just as much of a legitimate question as to where the matter/energy came from?
Rorkster2 said:So why do they take the position of a singularity and its spacetime 'inflating' many times the speed of light, instead of a position of the Big Bang came from a tremendously massive object that had a volume many light years across?
That was my initial reaction too - but I realized that the same statement could be read in terms of the initial state of the Universe having a larger volume that supposed in the regular BB models. So the "object" includes the space-time that contains the energy in this early stage. Which is to say, why not just start the model off at the point where we suppose the initial rapid expansion ended?So, the big bang was the hot, dense, state that the early universe was in. It wasn't an explosion. Hence, it 'coming from a tremendously massive object that had a volume many light years across' simply doesn't make sense.
Simon Bridge said:Mind you - I agree that we need for this to be clear now. Does OP imagine the big bang to propose an explosion into space?
Rorkster2 said:... except replace a singularity with a massive object ...
Rorkster2 said:So why do they take the position of a singularity and its spacetime 'inflating' many times the speed of light, instead of a position of the Big Bang came from a tremendously massive object that had a volume many light years across?
twofish-quant said:I wish I had a blackboard.
What you end up with is a calculation for density fluctuations in the universe, and that's what we see.
The Big Bang Theory is the scientific explanation for the origin and expansion of the universe. It states that the universe began as a singularity and expanded rapidly in a process known as inflation. Inflation is a period of rapid expansion that occurred in the first fractions of a second after the Big Bang.
The theory of inflation is supported by various observations and experiments, including the cosmic microwave background radiation, the abundance of light elements in the universe, and the large-scale structure of the universe. These pieces of evidence all align with the predictions made by the theory of inflation.
The rapid expansion during inflation is thought to be caused by a field called the inflaton field. This field has a negative pressure, which causes the universe to expand at an accelerated rate. As the universe expanded, the inflaton field decayed and released energy, leading to the hot and dense state of the early universe.
One of the mysteries of the universe is its uniformity, as seen in the cosmic microwave background radiation. Inflation provides an explanation for this uniformity by proposing that all regions of the universe were once in contact with each other and expanded rapidly, smoothing out any irregularities in density or temperature.
While the theory of inflation has a lot of supporting evidence, there are still some unanswered questions and areas of debate within the scientific community. Some alternative theories have been proposed that could potentially explain the same observations without the need for inflation. Additionally, the exact mechanism behind inflation is still not fully understood, leaving room for further research and discovery.