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The inflaton field is a hypothetical scalar field which is conjectured to have driven cosmic inflation in the very early universe. [1] [2] [3] The field, originally postulated by Alan Guth, [1] provides a mechanism by which a period of rapid expansion from 10 −35 to 10 −34 seconds after the initial expansion can be generated, forming a universe not inconsistent with observed spatial ...
Vacuum state is a configuration of quantum fields representing a local minimum (but not necessarily a global minimum) of energy. Inflationary models propose that at approximately 10 −36 seconds after the Big Bang, vacuum state of the Universe was different from the one seen at the present time: the inflationary vacuum had a much higher energy density.
[2]: 62, [3]: 61 The most commonly accepted solution among cosmologists is cosmic inflation, the idea that the universe went through a brief period of extremely rapid expansion in the first fraction of a second after the Big Bang; along with the monopole problem and the horizon problem, the flatness problem is one of the three primary ...
When inflation ends, the temperature returns to the pre-inflationary temperature; this is called reheating or thermalization because the large potential energy of the inflaton field decays into particles and fills the Universe with Standard Model particles, including electromagnetic radiation, starting the radiation dominated phase of the Universe.
Eternal inflation is a hypothetical inflationary universe model, which is itself an outgrowth or extension of the Big Bang theory. According to eternal inflation, the inflationary phase of the universe's expansion lasts forever throughout most of the universe. Because the regions expand exponentially rapidly, most of the volume of the universe ...
According to the inflationary theory, all elementary particles in the universe emerged after the end of inflation, in a process called reheating. The first version of the theory of reheating, which is essentially the theory of creation of matter in the universe, was developed in 1982 by Alexander Dolgov and Linde, and also by L.F. Abbott ...
The Big Bang is a physical theory that describes how the universe expanded from an initial state of high density and temperature. [1] The concept of an expanding universe was scientifically originated by physicist Alexander Friedmann in 1922 with the mathematical derivation of the Friedmann equations.
According to the inflationary model, the universe increased in size by a factor of more than 10 22, from a small and causally connected region in near equilibrium. [5] Inflation then expanded the universe rapidly, isolating nearby regions of spacetime by growing them beyond the limits of causal contact, effectively "locking in" the uniformity ...