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According to the theory of cosmic inflation, the very early universe underwent a period of very rapid, quasi-exponential expansion.While the time-scale for this period of expansion was far shorter than that of the existing expansion, this was a period of accelerated expansion with some similarities to the current epoch.
The universe could be infinite in extent or it could be finite; but the evidence that leads to the inflationary model of the early universe also implies that the "total universe" is much larger than the observable universe. Thus any edges or exotic geometries or topologies would not be directly observable, since light has not reached scales on ...
Cosmogony – Theory or model concerning the origin of the universe; Eureka: A Prose Poem – Lengthy non-fiction work by American author Edgar Allan Poe, a Big Bang speculation; Future of an expanding universe – Future scenario in which the expansion of the universe continues forever; Heat death of the universe – Possible fate of the ...
"The discrepancy between the observed expansion rate of the universe and the predictions of the standard model suggests that our understanding of the universe may be incomplete.
The rapid expansion of space meant that elementary particles remaining from the grand unification epoch were now distributed very thinly across the universe. However, the huge potential energy of the inflaton field was released at the end of the inflationary epoch, as the inflaton field decayed into other particles, known as "reheating".
The rapid expansion immediately after the Big Bounce explains why the present Universe at largest scales appears spatially flat, homogeneous and isotropic. As the density of the Universe decreases, the effects of torsion weaken and the Universe smoothly enters the radiation-dominated era.
The acceleration of the universe's expansion has also been confirmed by observations of distant supernovae. [9] If, as in the concordance model of physical cosmology (Lambda-cold dark matter or ΛCDM), dark energy is in the form of a cosmological constant , the expansion will eventually become exponential, with the size of the universe doubling ...
The "Big Bang" scenario, with cosmic inflation and standard particle physics, is the only cosmological model consistent with the observed continuing expansion of space, the observed distribution of lighter elements in the universe (hydrogen, helium, and lithium), and the spatial texture of minute irregularities (anisotropies) in the CMB radiation.