Has the Cosmology Standard Model become a Rube Goldberg Device?

This week at the Royal Astronomical Society’s National Astronomy Meeting in the UK, physicists are challenging the evidence for the recent BICEP2 results regarding the inflation period of the Universe, announced just 90 days ago. New research is laying doubt upon the inclusion of inflation theory in the Standard Cosmological Model for understanding the forces of nature, the nature of elementary particles and the present state of the known Universe.

Back on March 17, 2014, it seemed the World was offered a glimpse of an ultimate order from eons ago … actually from the beginning of time. BICEP2, the single purpose machine at the South Pole delivered an image that after analysis, and subtraction of estimated background signal from the Milky Way, lead its researchers to conclude that they had found the earliest remnant from the birth of the Universe, a signature in ancient light that supported the theory of Inflation.

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I’m rather annoyed that we had to wait for BICEP2 (cosmic microwave background polarization) for a good analysis of cosmic inflation. The results from the Planck satellite should have laid this to rest months earlier.

There is not and never has been a good alternative to the theory of slow-roll cosmic inflation. It has been sitting on the edge of the standard model since we got the results back from COBE in about 1991.

mollwollfumble said:

I’m rather annoyed that we had to wait for BICEP2 (cosmic microwave background polarization) for a good analysis of cosmic inflation. The results from the Planck satellite should have laid this to rest months earlier.

There is not and never has been a good alternative to the theory of slow-roll cosmic inflation. It has been sitting on the edge of the standard model since we got the results back from COBE in about 1991.

What is slow-roll cosmic inflation?

Is it a Rube-Goldberg device?

What TATE says:

“Slow-roll inflation

The bubble collision problem was solved by Andrei Linde and independently by Andreas Albrecht and Paul Steinhardt in a model named new inflation or slow-roll inflation (Guth’s model then became known as old inflation). In this model, instead of tunneling out of a false vacuum state, inflation occurred by a scalar field rolling down a potential energy hill. When the field rolls very slowly compared to the expansion of the universe, inflation occurs. However, when the hill becomes steeper, inflation ends and reheating can occur.”

Anyone got a comprehensible link?

i thought that the BICEP2 findings had been called into question? might be dust i heard.

ChrispenEvan said:

i thought that the BICEP2 findings had been called into question? might be dust i heard.

That’s what the article is saying.

well, there you go. don’t often read the articles. unless the intro posted grabs me.