So what do the people who know about these things think about:

Cosmic inflation is dead, long live cosmic inflation

Inflation is dead, long live inflation! The very results hailed this year as demonstrating a consequence of inflationary models of the universe – and therefore pointing to the existence of multiverses – now seem to do the exact opposite. If the results can be trusted at all, they now suggest inflation is wrong, raising the possibility of cyclic universes that existed before the big bang.

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The Rev Dodgson said:

So what do the people who know about these things think about:

Cosmic inflation is dead, long live cosmic inflation

Inflation is dead, long live inflation! The very results hailed this year as demonstrating a consequence of inflationary models of the universe – and therefore pointing to the existence of multiverses – now seem to do the exact opposite. If the results can be trusted at all, they now suggest inflation is wrong, raising the possibility of cyclic universes that existed before the big bang.

…

Still reading the Inflation chapter of Victor Stenger’s recent book, so I can’t comment much (and am not by any means a physicist anyway :)). But I disagree with Steinhardt that a multiverse is not a “simple” universe. A multiverse in which anything that can happen, does, is philosophically a very simple model indeed. I’ll have to read up on his anti-inflation views, but not until I’ve finished the Stenger multiverse book.

I’m not sure that I approve of multiverses :)

I wonder where KJW hangs out these days.

here rev.

JudgeMental said:

here rev.

Makes sense.

Thanks.

I knew that Steinhardt was one of the pioneers of inflation theory, but I was unaware he’d completely turned against it :)

Should be some interesting cosmological punch-ups over the next few years.

that is a very well run forum rev. some smart people and no bullshit.

Bubblecar said:

I knew that Steinhardt was one of the pioneers of inflation theory, but I was unaware he’d completely turned against it :)

Should be some interesting cosmological punch-ups over the next few years.

Yeah, I thought inflation was still hypothesis of the month with just about everybody.

The Rev Dodgson said:

Bubblecar said:

I knew that Steinhardt was one of the pioneers of inflation theory, but I was unaware he’d completely turned against it :)

Should be some interesting cosmological punch-ups over the next few years.

Yeah, I thought inflation was still hypothesis of the month with just about everybody.

How time flies :)

I still think of inflation as a “new thing”, but Stenger’s book has reminded me that most of the basic work was done in the 1980s.

The Rev Dodgson said:

So what do the people who know about these things think about:

Cosmic inflation is dead, long live cosmic inflation

Inflation is dead, long live inflation! The very results hailed this year as demonstrating a consequence of inflationary models of the universe – and therefore pointing to the existence of multiverses – now seem to do the exact opposite. If the results can be trusted at all, they now suggest inflation is wrong, raising the possibility of cyclic universes that existed before the big bang.

…

This has happened before. Guth’s original 1981 version of inflation was quickly disposed of, to be replaced immediately by “slow roll inflation” which has since become the standard.

> Cosmologists are waiting for space-based Planck telescope … BICEP2.

BICEP2 is a child’s toy compared to Planck. Planck has much greater resolution, multiple wavelengths to evaluate and remove non-cosmological observations, being space-based is not influenced by atmospheric emission, and is even further away than the Moon to remove human-made influences. If there’s any difference between BICEP2 and Planck, trust Planck.

Relevant technical papers for Planck’s take on inflation are:
Planck 2013 results. XXII. Constraints on inflation
Planck constraints on single-field inflation
Inflationary Cosmology after Planck 2013