For the time being, mainly what we have is just Liddle, Ch. 13: Direct link.
Plus some supplements/complements.
- Liddle, Ch. 13: Direct link.
- Limitations and Tensions of our Current Cosmological Theories
- Inflation and Inflation Cosmology
- The flatness problem:
|Ω_tot_0-1| < 0.5 at cosmic time t_0 da/dt = da/dt * Ω_tot - k is a rewritten Friedmann equation (Li-55) |Ω_tot - 1| = |k|/(da/dt) ∝ t**(2/3) for matter era using the EdS solution |Ω_tot - 1| = |k|/(da/dt) ∝ t for radiation era using the EdS solution |Ω_tot - 1|_equality < ([10**12 s]/[4*10**(17) s])**(2/3) ≅ 2**(-4) (L-102) and the value gets vastly smaller as you go ealier.The observable universe seems fine-tuned for flatness now. Is this a problem?Well if |Ω_tot - 1| = 0 exactly as a symmetry of nature, then no.
But if you believe in some complex/chaotic/multiverse universe from which our observable universe and its unobservable surroundings (our pocket universe in multiverse jargon) arose in which curvature is NOT fixed, then a big bang pocket universe needs a flattening process.
inflation provides this.
- The horizon problem:
- Wikipedia: Graphical timeline from Big Bang to Heat Death but note that the left-hand vertical scale is tricky, for greater than about > 0, it is x=100*log(log(t_year)) and so t_year=10**(10**(x/100)))
- Wikipedia: Graphical timeline of the Big Bang: Redundant to the timeline above.
- Wikipedia: Chronology of the universe: Redundant to timeline above.
- Images: Cosmic inflation
- Universe-review: Old inflation versus new inflation: Actually old inflation has been long gone.
- Time evolution from pre-inflation to now: The observable universe grew from 10**(-60) meters!
- Thespectrum: Inflation cartoon
- Keywords: Baryonic matter (protons, neutrons, electrons), Big Bang, Big Bang nucleosynthesis, big bang singularity, cosmic energy eras (radiation era, matter era, dark-energy era) deuteron (D or H-2), early universe, helium (He) (He-3, He-4), IOP cosmological parameters summary: bit dated, Universe in Problems: lots of solutions.
- IAL 30: Cosmology: Inflation and Inflation Cosmology
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- The horizon problem: this the one Steven Weinberg (1933--) thinks only inflation explains (see Weinberg 2008, p. 208: This is one hard book.)
Caption: A cartoon of the divergence of Omega.
A cartoon illustrating what happens to the inflaton in the inflation epoch.
- A Cosmic Controversy: The old bulls get riled up in support of inflaton.
Really about definitions: See the response: "Inflation generically leads to eternal inflation and, consequently, a multiverse to infinite diversity of outcomes."
- Livio, M. 2013, How Can We Tell If a Multiverse Exists?: With the mario livio image. The false-vacuum background universe expands I guess, because gravity and general relativity still apply and there is is no static solution if there is an overall isotropy and homogeneity aside from pocket universes.
- Images for eternal inflation, the multiverse, and pocket universes:
- The atomist cosmology: eternal inflation, the early view:
- The horizon problem: this the one Steven Weinberg (1933--) thinks only inflation explains (see Weinberg 2008, p. 208: This is one hard book.)
