Mysteries of Cosmic Inflation | Episode 906 | Closer To Truth

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>THAT THE UNIVERSE IS VAST AND EXPANDING IS ONE OF HUMANITY'S MONUMENTAL DISCOVERIES. BUT MYSTERIES REMAIN. WHY IS THE UNIVERSE SO UNIFORM? ITS TEMPERATURE AND DENSITY SIMILAR IN ALL DIRECTIONS? ON DECEMBER 6, 1979, AT NIGHT, A LOW KEY PHYSICIST CAME TO WHAT HE CALLED A SPECTACULAR REALIZATION. THE VERY EARLY UNIVERSE, HE ENVISIONED, HAD UNDERGONE A PERIOD OF ENORMOUS, EXPONENTIAL EXPANSION. FLEETINGLY BRIEF, IT ALL HAPPENED WITHIN THE FIRST FRACTION OF A SECOND. ALAN GUTH, THE THEORY'S ORIGINATOR, CALLED THIS EXTRAORDINARY EVENT, "INFLATION". AND IT WOULD STUN COSMOLOGY. PERSONALLY, COSMIC INFLATION ENTHRALLS ME. I WANT TO MEET THE SCIENTISTS AND HEAR THEIR STORIES. I'M ROBERT LAWRENCE KUHN, AND CLOSER TO TRUTH IS MY OPPORTUNITY. COSMIC INFLATION IS SO POWERFUL, SO STRANGE, SO MAGICAL, THAT BEFORE MEETING ALAN GUTH, I HAD BETTER UNDERSTAND HIS THEORY. SO I BEGIN AT TUFTS UNIVERSITY WITH ONE OF INFLATION'S KEY DEVELOPERS, THE DIRECTOR OF THE INSTITUTE OF COSMOLOGY, ALEXANDER VILENKIN. >>INFLATION ACTUALLY IS THE THEORY OF THE BANG, OF THE BIG BANG. INFLATION IS EXTREMELY FAST, ACCELERATED EXPANSION OF THE UNIVERSE. AND IT IS DRIVEN BY A VERY PECULIAR FORM OF MATTER, WHICH IS CALLED, FALSE VACUUM. THE MOST PECULIAR THING ABOUT IT, IS THAT IT IS A VERY DENSE MATERIAL. ITS CUBIC CENTIMETER HAS MASS, AT LEAST THE MASS OF THE MOON. AND IS PROBABLY MUCH HIGHER. BUT THE MOST PECULIAR PROPERTY OF THIS THING IS THAT IT HAS STRONG REPULSIVE GRAVITY. AND THIS IS WHAT CAUSES THE UNIVERSE TO EXPAND AT A STAGGERING RATE. AND SINCE THIS FORCE PERSISTS, THE UNIVERSE EXPANDS FASTER AND FASTER. SO IT GETS HUGE IN A TINY INTERVAL OF TIME. SO THIS FALSE VACUUM EVENTUALLY DECAYS. IT IS UNSTABLE. AND ITS ENERGY TURNS IN TO A WHOLE TRIABLE OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND RADIATION. FROM THAT POINT ON, GRAVITY OF PARTICLES IS NORMAL, IT IS ATTRACTIVE GRAVITY. BUT THIS FIREBALL EXPANDS BY INERTIA. BECAUSE IT WAS EXPANDING SO FAST TO BEGIN WITH, AND THE END OF INFLATION OR THE CREATION OF THE FIREBALL IS WHAT WE CALL THE BIG BANG. THE EXPANSION OF THE UNIVERSE THAT WE SEE TODAY IS JUST THE CONSEQUENCE OF THE FORCE OF THIS INITIAL EXPLOSION. >INFLATION DESCRIBES HOW THE BIG BANG CAME ABOUT. IT IS ASTONISHING. REPULSIVE GRAVITY, CAUSING THE UNIVERSE TO EXPAND FASTER AND FASTER, AND A FALSE VACUUM DECAYING IN TO A HOT FIREBALL OF PARTICLES AND RADIATION. WHAT WE CALL THE BIG BANG IS THE CREATION OF THIS FIREBALL AT THE END OF INFLATION. INFLATION IS WHAT CAUSED THE BIG BANG TO GO BANG. I NOW HEAD ACROSS TOWN, TO MIT, TO MEET ALAN GUTH, ONE OF MY HEROES. I'M EXCITED TO HEAR FIRSTHAND HOW ONE MAN CHANGED OUR SPECIES' UNDERSTANDING OF THE ORIGIN OF THE UNIVERSE. I ASK ALAN HOW HE CAME TO REALIZE ONE OF THE GREATEST INSIGHTS OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE, COSMIC INFLATION. ALAN, THE THEORY OF INFLATION IN COSMOLOGY, WHICH YOU DISCOVERED, IS ONE OF THE GREATEST ACHIEVEMENTS IN HUMAN INTELLECTUAL HISTORY. HOW DID THIS HAPPEN? WHAT DOES IT MEAN? TAKE US ON YOUR JOURNEY. >>OKAY. FIRST OF ALL, A LOT OF THINGS HAPPENED THAT LED UP TO THIS, WHICH IS IMPORTANT. I FIRST LEARNED ABOUT SOMETHING CALLED THE FLATNESS PROBLEM, WHICH IS CRUCIAL IN THE IDEA OF CREATION, FROM A LECTURE THAT I JUST HAPPENED TO WANDER INTO IN THE FALL OF 1978, GIVEN AT CORNELL BY ROBERT DICKEY. THIS FLATNESS PROBLEM IS THE STATEMENT THAT TO GET THE UNIVERSE TO COME OUT RIGHT, TO LOOK ANYTHING LIKE WHAT WE SEE NOW, IF YOU LOOK BACK AT WHAT THINGS MUST HAVE BEEN LIKE AT ONE SECOND AFTER THE BIG BANG, THE EXPANSION RATE HAS TO HAVE BEEN JUST RIGHT. OR THE MASS DENSITY HAS TO HAVE BEEN JUST RIGHT TO AN ACCURACY OF ABOUT 1 PART IN 10 TO THE 14. OTHERWISE THE UNIVERSE EITHER RAPIDLY RE-COLLAPSES OR EXPANDS SO FAST THAT NO GALAXY IS FORMED. THIS IDEA STRUCK ME VERY MUCH AT THE TIME. I WAS BALLED OVER BY IT. BUT I HAD NO IDEA, REALLY, ABOUT WHAT TO DO WITH IT AT THE TIME. I JUST TUCKED IT AWAY IN THE BACK OF MY MIND. ALSO IN THE FALL OF 1978, THE OTHER IMPORTANT EVENT THAT GOT THINGS ROLLING WAS A FELLOW POST DOC OF MINE AT CORNELL, NAMED HENRY TYE, CAME TO ME ONE DAY AND ASKED ME ABOUT MAGNETIC MONOPOLES AND GRAND UNIFIED THEORIES. HE HAD SAID, WELL WHY DON'T WE TRY TO FIGURE OUT HOW MANY OF THEM WOULD HAVE BEEN MADE IN THE BIG BANG. AT FIRST THIS IDEA SOUNDED CRAZY AND HE REALLY HAD TO TWIST MY ARM TO GET ME TO WORK WITH HIM ON IT. WHEN WE DID, WE DISCOVERED THAT THE UNIVERSE WOULD BE SWAMPED WITH MAGNETIC MONOPOLES IF ONE COMBINED STANDARD IDEAS FROM GRAND UNIFIED THEORIES WITH STANDARD COSMOLOGY. SO THAT LED US TO START TO SCRATCH OUR HEAD ABOUT WHETHER OR NOT THERE WAS ANY WAY TO MODIFY STANDARD COSMOLOGY, TO MAKE IT CONSISTENT WITH GRAND UNIFIED THEORIES AND THE OBSERVED ABSENCE OF MAGNETIC MONOPOLES AND THE REAL UNIVERSE. WE CAME UP WITH THE IDEA THAT THESE MAGNETIC MONOPOLES WOULD BE EXTRAORDINARY SUPPRESSED IF, IN THE EARLY UNIVERSE, THERE WAS AN EXTREME AMOUNTS OF SUPER COOLING, GOING BELOW THE TEMPERATURE OF THE PHASE TRANSITION, WITHOUT THE PHASE TRANSITION YET HAPPENING. WE ASSUMED THAT THIS SUPER COOLING WOULD HAVE NO EFFECT ON THE EXPANSION RATE OF THE UNIVERSE, AND IN OUR CALCULATIONS WE JUST PUT IN THE STANDARD EXPANSION RATE. AND THEN THE REAL EXCITEMENT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT WHEN I WENT HOME AND LOOKED AT THE EQUATIONS THAT DESCRIBED HOW MASS DENSITIES EFFECT THE EXPANSION OF THE UNIVERSE, WHICH ARE ALL REALLY STANDARD EQUATIONS OF COSMOLOGY. IT BECAME IMMEDIATELY APPARENT THAT THE CONSEQUENCES OF THIS SUPER COOLING WOULD RESULT IN A FORM OF MATTER THAT WOULD REALLY TURN GRAVITY ON ITS HEAD AND CAUSE IT TO BECOME REPULSIVE INSTEAD OF ATTRACTIVE, AND THAT THAT WOULD PROPEL THE EXPANSION OF THE UNIVERSE, AND PERHAPS EVEN EXPLAIN WHY THE UNIVERSE WAS EXPANDING, WHICH IS WHAT BECAME THE THEORY OF INFLATION ITSELF. AND I REALIZED THAT SAME NIGHT, IT WAS EXTRAORDINARILY EXCITING, THAT THIS PROCESS OF EXPONENTIAL EXPANSION WOULD ACTUALLY SOLVE THIS FLATNESS PROBLEM. THE EXPANSION RATE THAT IS DRIVEN BY THIS GRAVITATIONAL REPULSION IS JUST THE RIGHT RATE TO DRIVE THE UNIVERSE TO THIS CRITICAL DENSITY THAT THE UNIVERSE NEEDED TO HAVE, TO EXTRAORDINARY ACCURACY, IN THE EARLY PERIOD. >AND IN DESCRIBING THAT FEELING, WHAT DID YOU WRITE IN YOUR DIARY? >>WELL, IT WASN'T EXACTLY MY DIARY. BUT ON THE PAGE THAT I WAS DOING THE CALCULATIONS ON, I WROTE, WHEN I REALIZED THAT IT WOULD SOLVE THE FLATNESS PROBLEM, SPECTACULAR REALIZATION. AND I PUT A DOUBLE BOX AROUND IT. AND AS FAR AS I KNOW, IT'S THE ONLY TIME I HAVE EVER PUT A DOUBLE BOX AROUND IT. I WAS IMMEDIATELY EXCITED ABOUT IT, BUT I WAS ALSO IMMEDIATELY WORRIED THAT IT WAS, YOU KNOW, JUST TOO SIMPLE AND TOO OBVIOUS AND TOO WONDERFUL TO BE TRUE. >SO WHAT HAPPENED THE NEXT DAY AND AFTERWARDS? >>I ROUGHLY DID THE CALCULATIONS THAT NIGHT AND THEN I SLEPT A LITTLE BIT AND THEN I WOKE UP EXCITED THE NEXT MORNING AND BICYCLED TO MY PLACE OF WORK, THE STANFORD LINEAR ACCELERATOR CENTER, AND I DID MAKE A NOTE, AND IT ACTUALLY WAS MY DIARY, THAT I BROKE MY BICYCLE SPEED RECORD THAT MORNING. THEN I STARTED TELLING PEOPLE ABOUT IT AND SOME PEOPLE GOT VERY EXCITED. THE NEXT IMPORTANT EVENT WAS REALLY JUST A FEW WEEKS LATER WHEN I WAS HAVING LUNCH IN THE SLAC CAFETERIA, PEOPLE BEGAN TALKING ABOUT SOMETHING WHICH HAS BEEN MENTIONED IN A RECENT PAPER BY TONY ZEE, CALLED THE HORIZON PROBLEM. THE PROBLEM OF HOW THE UNIVERSE GOT TO BE SO UNIFORM. WHICH I HAD NOT RECOGNIZED WAS EVEN A PROBLEM. BUT IT TURNS OUT TO BE VERY HARD TO UNDERSTAND HOW THE EARLY UNIVERSE GOT TO BE AS UNIFORM AS IT APPARENTLY WAS. IT REALLY DOESN'T MAKE SENSE IN THE CONTEXT OF THE STANDARD BIG BANG MODEL. BUT AS SOON AS I HEARD ABOUT IT, I REALIZED THAT INFLATION WOULD SOLVE THAT, TOO. BECAUSE THIS ENORMOUS PERIOD OF EXPANSION WOULD MEAN THAT YOU WOULD BE TAKING A VERY, VERY TINY REGION OF THE EARLY UNIVERSE AND STRETCHING IT OUT. AND VERY, VERY TINY REGIONS ARE USUALLY UNIFORM. AND THEN WHEN YOU STRETCHED THEM, THE PROCESS OF STRETCHING WOULD MAINTAIN THAT UNIFORMITY. I GAVE MY FIRST SEMINAR ABOUT THIS AT THE END OF JANUARY OF 1980, AT SLAC. AND THAT'S WHEN THE EXCITEMENT REALLY STARTED. I GOT A VERY POSITIVE REACTION FROM THE AUDIENCE. AND BY THAT SPRING, INFLATION REALLY HAD PERMEATED THE US PHYSICS COMMUNITY. >AND SINCE THEN, INFLATION HAS REALLY COME TO BE A STANDARD PART OF THE THEORY OF HOW THE UNIVERSE WAS CREATED WITH MORE AND MORE OBSERVATIONAL AND INDEED EXPERIMENTAL DATA THAT SUPPORTS IT. >>THAT'S CORRECT. AND SO FAR, THE OBSERVATIONS ARE JUST WONDERFULLY, AND PREDICTION, WITH IN FACT THE SIMPLEST VERSIONS OF INFLATIONARY MODELS. SO IT HAS BEEN A REMARKABLE SUCCESS AND AN AMAZING -- I JUST LOVE IT. >COSMIC INFLATION REVOLUTIONIZED COSMOLOGY. THE SIMPLE ELEGANCE OF ALAN'S DISCOVERY IS BREATHTAKING. IN AN UNIMAGINABLY SHORT SPAN OF TIME, ALL SPACE UNDERWENT STUPENDOUS EXPONENTIAL EXPANSION. FOR THE AGE OLD MYSTERY OF HOW THE UNIVERSE BEGAN, HERE WAS THE HIDDEN KEY. YET THE STORY WAS NOT SO SIMPLE. BECAUSE ALAN'S COSMIC INFLATION, IT SEEMED, WOULD NEVER END. AND THUS NO UNIVERSE COULD EVER FORM. ALAN'S THEORY WAS SWEEPING AND STARTLING, BUT HIS COSMIC INFLATION DID NOT WORK. SOMETHING WAS AMISS. I GO TO PRINCETON TO MEET THE MAN WHO FIGURED OUT HOW INFLATION COULD END, AND THUS COULD WORK. PHYSICIST PAUL STEINHARDT. HOW DOES COSMIC INFLATION EXPLAIN THE ORIGIN OF THE UNIVERSE? I ASKED PAUL. >>UP UNTIL EINSTEIN'S WORK IN THE EARLIER PART OF THIS 20TH CENTURY, THE IDEA WAS THAT SPACE IS SOMETHING THAT WE MOVE THROUGH, BUT IS IT SELF STATIC? INERT? SO WE CAN TALK ABOUT OUR POSITION IN IT, HOW FAST WE MOVE THROUGH IT, BUT THE SPACE ITSELF DOESN'T RESPOND TO ANYTHING ELSE THAT'S HAPPENING -- IT'S A SEPARATE ENTITY. AFTER EINSTEIN INVENTED HIS SPECIAL THEORY OF RELATIVITY, WHICH DESCRIBED THE WAY SPACE AND TIME CHANGED, AS ACCORDING TO DIFFERENT OBSERVERS, SPACE IS SOMETHING WHICH IS ELASTIC. IT CAN STRETCH, IT CAN WARP, IT CAN WIGGLE. SO YOU IMMEDIATELY RAN IN TO EVEN A MORE ELEMENTARY PROBLEM, WHICH IS IF THE UNIVERSE IS EXPANDING GOING FORWARD IN TIME, WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN GOING BACKWARDS IN TIME? IT WILL HAVE CONTRACTED. AND EVENTUALLY IT WILL HAVE CONTRACTED TO A POINT WHERE EVERYTHING WE SEE, ALL OF THE MATTER IN RADIATION SPACE, WILL HAVE CONTRACTED TO A POINT. THAT MEANS THE TEMPERATURE AND DENSITY WOULD HAVE BECOME INFINITE AND SPACE WOULD HAVE, IN SOME SENSE, DISAPPEARED ACCORDING TO EINSTEIN'S THEORY. THIS IS WHAT WE CALL THE BIG BANG, OR THE COSMIC SINGULARITY. AND SO IT IMMEDIATELY INTRODUCED A VERY UNCOMFORTABLE IDEA THAT SPACE AND TIME HAVE A BEGINNING. AND THEN IT LED TO A SECOND PROBLEM WHICH IS, OKAY, IF YOU IMAGINE IT HAS A BEGINNING AND THIS IS SOME VIOLENT, QUANTUM EVENT, THEN WHAT COMES OUT OF THIS EVENT SHOULD BE SOMETHING TURBULENT. IT SHOULD BE VERY NON-UNIFORM. IT SHOULD BE HOTTER IN ONE DIRECTION THAN ANOTHER. SPACE ITSELF CAN BE CURVED AND WARPED. BUT THE UNIVERSE DOESN'T LOOK THAT WAY AT ALL. THE UNIVERSE LOOKS REMARKABLY UNIFORM AND SPACE SEEMS HARDLY WARPED AT ALL. SO THE MOMENT WE HAD THE IDEA OF THE BEGINNING, WE -- IT TURNS OUT THAT WE HAD TO INVENT A NEW IDEA TO EXPLAIN THE SMOOTHNESS THAT WOULD EMERGE RIGHT AFTER THE BEGINNING. SO THIS HAS FORCED US LOGICALLY INTO, WELL THE ONLY SOLUTION THAT WE KNOW, IF THE UNIVERSE HAS A BEGINNING, IS TO HAVE A PERIOD THAT WE CALL INFLATION. >NOW HOW DOES THAT WORK? >>IT TURNS OUT THAT HIDDEN IN EINSTEIN'S GENERAL THEORY OF RELATIVITY, IS A POSSIBILITY FOR A FORM OF ENERGY WHICH WOULD HAVE A KIND OF ANTI-GRAVITY EFFECT. AND IF YOU FILL A UNIVERSE WITH SUCH A FORM OF ENERGY, IT ACTUALLY CAUSES THE EXPANSION OF SPACE. SO THE IDEA OF INFLATION IS, THAT WHEN THE UNIVERSE BEGAN IT HAD A MIXTURE OF ORDINARY MATTER AND RADIATION, BUT ALSO THIS SELF-REPULSIVE STUFF. IT TOOK OVER THE UNIVERSE, SMOOTHED IT THROUGH CAUSING THIS EXPANSION, AND THEN IT ITSELF DECAYED. SO WE ARE, IN FACT, THE PRODUCTS OF NOT THE BIG BANG DIRECTLY, BUT REALLY MOST DIRECTLY THE STUFF THAT CAME OUT OF THE DECAY OF THIS SELF REPULSIVE ENERGY. THE WAY THE INFLATIONARY THEORY DEVELOPED HISTORICALLY IS THAT ALAN GUTH AT MIT FIRST OF ALL HAD THE IDEA THAT IF YOU HAD THIS KIND OF SELF-REPULSIVE ENERGY, IT COULD CAUSE THE UNIVERSE TO SMOOTH ITSELF OUT. BUT ONCE IT BEGAN THIS PROCESS OF INFLATION, HE DIDN'T HAVE ANY MECHANISM TO STOP IT. SO THE UNIVERSE JUST HAD THIS RUNAWAY INFLATION FOREVER. I GOT INTERESTED IN MAYBE FINDING A WAY TO MAKE THIS SELF-REPULSIVE ENERGY TO DECAY. WE IN FACT FOUND A MECHANISM THAT WOULD PERMIT IT TO DECAY, AND SO THE UNIVERSE COULD THEN BE SMOOTH AND END INFLATION. >AND WHAT PERIOD OF TIME DID THIS TAKE? >>SO INFLATION WOULD ONLY LAST AROUND 10 TO THE MINUS 30 SECONDS. BUT IN THAT TIME, IT WOULD DOUBLE IN SIZE MAYBE 100 THOUSAND TIMES OR MORE. THIS WAS A CRITICAL MOMENT FOR THE INFLATIONARY THEORY, BECAUSE AFTER HAVING SMOOTHED THE UNIVERSE OUT WITH THIS IDEA, WE COULD HAVE DESTROYED THE, THE PREDICTIONS COULD HAVE BEEN HORRIBLE FOR THESE TINY INHOMOGENEITY THAT WE GOT. >BECAUSE YOU NEED THEM OR THERE WOULD BE NO GALAXY OR STARS. >>THAT'S RIGHT, YOU NEED SOME. BUT YOU MIGHT WORRY THAT YOU MAKE THEM TOO BIG OR TOO VIOLENT. AND YOU SPOIL THE SMOOTHNESS. BUT INSTEAD WE FOUND THAT YOU'VE GOT A VERY SPECIAL PATTERN OF INHOMOGENEITY, OF NON-UNIFORMITY, IS WHAT WE NEED TO EXPLAIN THE FORMATION OF GALAXIES. >PAUL'S NEW INFLATION WORKED BECAUSE A SPECIAL SCALER FIELD ROLLED DOWN A POTENTIAL ENERGY HILL. AND WHEN THE HILL STEEPENED, INFLATION ENDED. ANTI-GRAVITY, EXPANSION OF SPACE, BIZARRE? WAIT. THERE'S MORE. THE INCREDIBLE BECOMES THE STAGGERING. I GO TO STANFORD TO SPEAK WITH RUSSIAN-AMERICAN PHYSICIST ANDREI LINDE, WHO ALSO FIGURED OUT HOW TO END INFLATION. THEN ANDREI WENT FURTHER, TRANSFORMING COSMIC INFLATION INTO INTERNAL CHAOTIC INFLATION. I CAN'T WAIT TO HEAR HIS STORY. >>WELL THIS HISTORY IS NOT VERY SHORT, BECAUSE FOR A LONG TIME PEOPLE WERE COMING WITH SIMILAR AND RELATED IDEAS. LIKE, FOR EXAMPLE, IN '79 ALEXANDER STAROBINSKY CAME UP WITH A MODEL THAT WAS VERY SIMILAR TO THE INFLATIONARY MODEL, BUT THEN THIS MODEL WAS NOT WELL KNOWN IN THE REST. AND ALAN GUTH CAME UP WITH HIS OWN. WHAT WAS THE ADVANTAGE OF ALAN'S MODEL WAS ITS TRANSPARENCY AND CLEAR UNDERSTANDING OF WHY INFLATION IS NECESSARY. SO THIS WON HIM A LOT OF FRIENDS. EVERYBODY UNDERSTOOD WHY YOU WOULD DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT. BUT HE HIMSELF HAS SAID THAT HIS MODEL DID NOT QUITE WORK. THIS WAS AMAZING AND THIS WAS QUITE BRAVE. IT WAS SO INTERESTING, THE IDEA WAS SO GREAT, BUT IT DID NOT WORK AND DID NOT WORK. I ACTUALLY HAD AN ULCER AT THAT TIME. I SUSPECT THAT IT WAS MAYBE INDUCED BY THIS UNHAPPINESS OF HEARING A GREAT IDEA WHICH YOU CANNOT MAKE WORK. AND THEN ALAN TOGETHER WITH ERIC WEINERT, HAD WRITTEN A PAPER PROVING THAT THIS THEORY COULD NOT BE IMPROVED. BUT IN '81, I ALREADY KNEW HOW TO IMPROVE IT. I ADVISED THAT YOU COULD CHANGE HIS MODEL QUITE SUBSTANTIALLY AND THEN MAKE IT WORK. AND THEN I WAS SO EXCITED AND I WAKE UP MY WIFE AND I TOLD HER, LUCA, I KNOW HOW THE UNIVERSE WAS CREATED. SO THIS WAS QUITE EXCITING. I SPENT ABOUT THREE MONTHS JUST GETTING PERMISSION FOR PUBLICATION OF THIS PAPER, WHICH WAS UNDER STANDARD CESSATION AT THAT TIME IN THE SOVIET UNION. AND THEY REPORTED THIS AT SOME INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE IN MOSCOW. AND MANY OF MY FRIENDS THERE AT THE CONFERENCE SUGGESTED ME, THAT GIVE US YOUR PAPER AND WE'LL JUST SMUGGLE IT WITHOUT ANY PERMISSION. BUT SOMETHING STOPPED ME FROM DOING IT, AND IT WAS STEVE HAWKINGS. YOU KNOW, AFTER I GAVE A TALK AT THIS CONFERENCE, THE NEXT DAY THERE WAS A TALK BY STEVEN AND THEY ASKED ME TO TRANSLATE HIS TALK. BUT THEN, IN THE MIDDLE OF HIS TALK, HE SAID THAT THIS WAS A VERY INTERESTING INFLATIONARY THEORY PROPOSAL, BUT IT DID NOT WORK. AND I TRANSLATED AND EXPLAINED WHY IT DIDN'T WORKED. AND THEN HE SAID, BUT THEN RECENTLY THERE WAS AN INTERESTING SUGGESTION BY ANDREI LINDE ON HOW TO IMPROVE IT. AND I HAPPILY TRANSLATED IT. AND THEN HE SAID, BUT THIS PROPOSAL COMPLETELY DOES NOT WORK FOR THIS AND THAT REASON. AND FOR HALF OF AN HOUR, I TRANSLATED HIS IDEAS OF WHY MY PROPOSAL DOESN'T WORK AND ALL THE PEOPLE IN THE AUDIENCE WERE THE BEST PEOPLE IN RUSSIA WHO CAME TO HEAR STEVE HAWKINGS TALK. AND MY FUTURE DEPENDED ON IT. AND I WAS TRANSLATING WHY I AM SUCH A DUMB FOOL. OKAY, SO AFTER I TRANSLATED, I TOLD STEVEN, WELL I TRANSLATED BUT I DISAGREE AND LET ME EXPLAIN WHY. AND THEN I EXPLAINED AND THEN HE INVITED ME TO THE CONFERENCE, WHICH WAS THE FIRST CONFERENCE ON INFLATION AND ECOCOSMOLOGY IN CAMBRIDGE, AND THAT'S HOW NEW INFLATION STARTED. AND THIS WAS NOT THE END OF THE STORY BECAUSE NEW INFLATION ALSO WAS PROBLEMATIC. AND THEN IN '83 I REPLACED IT WITH SOMETHING WHICH I CALLED CHAOTIC INFLATION. AND IN '86 I FOUND A WAY HOW TO MAKE THIS CHAOTIC INFLATION ETERNAL. >SO DEFINE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CHAOTIC AND ETERNAL. >>OH, WELL ETERNAL INFLATION IS INFLATION WHICH CAN START, BUT WHICH CONTINUES ALL THE TIME INDEFINITELY, FOR INDEFINITELY IN LARGE TIME, IN DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE UNIVERSE. SO CHAOTIC INFLATION JUST SAYS THAT INFLATION MAY OR MAY NOT START IN DIFFERENT PARTS, AND IN PARTS WHICH IT DID NOT START. WELL, SO TOO BAD. WELL IN THE PARTS WHERE IT STARTS, SO GREAT. YOU PRODUCE AN ENORMOUSLY LARGE VOLUME OF SPACE. SO THIS IS A GOOD, SIMPLE, ROBUST MECHANISM OF STARTING INFLATION. >AND THIS THEORY OF ETERNAL CHAOTIC INFLATION CHANGED HUMANITY'S CONCEPTION OF THE EXTENT OF REALITY. >>WELL THIS IS TRUE, AND NOW IT IS CONTINUED BEING CHANGED, BECAUSE IT BECAME AN ESSENTIAL PART OF STRING THEORY. I MYSELF MUST SAY THAT I AM EXTREMELY EXCITED ABOUT IT. >ETERNAL CHAOTIC INFLATION DEFIES IMAGINATION. CHAOTIC, BUBBLE UNIVERSES BRANCHING OFF, EACH FROM ANOTHER. ETERNAL. MORE AND MORE NEW UNIVERSES NEVER STOPPING. MULTIPLE UNIVERSES WITHOUT NUMBER OR LIMIT, POPPING INTO EXISTENCE. COULD REALITY BE SO INEFFABLY VAST? WHAT ABOUT OUR OWN UNIVERSE? NOW SEEMING RATHER PUNY. ITS EXPANSION, TOO, WAS HIDING A SPECTACULAR SURPRISE. I GO TO LAWRENCE BERKELEY NATIONAL LABORATORY, TO MEET SAUL PERLMUTTER. SAUL LOOKED IN TO THE SKY AND SHOCKED SCIENCE. >>ALAN GUTH TALKS ABOUT THE INFLATIONARY PERIOD IN THE UNIVERSE. AND HAS TO PAUSE IT, THAT THERE IS SOME WAY IN WHICH THE UNIVERSE CAN BE FORCED TO ACCELERATE IN ITS EXPANSION, FASTER AND FASTER. >EXPONENTIALLY. >>PRECISELY. AND PERHAPS WITH SOME, YOU KNOW, FUNDAMENTAL, YOU KNOW, ENERGY THAT IS THERE, THAT IS CAUSING THIS TO OCCUR. WE DON'T HAVE ANY WAY RIGHT NOW OF OBSERVING THAT IN ACTION, BUT WE JUST HAPPEN TO HAVE DISCOVERED THAT OUR CURRENT UNIVERSE SEEMS TO BE ACCELERATING AND PROBABLY WITH SOME ENERGIES SPREAD THROUGHOUT SPACE THAT IS CAUSING THAT ACCELERATION. AND WE DON'T KNOW IF IT'S THE SAME THING AS WHAT WAS CAUSING THAT EARLY INFLATION. BUT AT LEAST IT'S AN ANALOGY AND IT LEAST IT GIVES US AN EXAMPLE OF AN EXISTENCE PROOF THAT SUCH THINGS CAN HAPPEN. SO IT ALLOWS US TO AT LEAST LOOK AT WHAT KINDS OF PHYSICS CAN LEAD TO AN ACCELERATION. THEY BOTH WOULD HAVE A, YOU KNOW, AN ENERGY THAT IS REALLY SPREAD THROUGH ALL OF THE VACUUM. ALL OF THE EMPTY SPACE HAS THIS ENERGY ASSOCIATED WITH IT. BACK THEN, AND NOW. AND THAT ENERGY CAN MAKE THE UNIVERSE EXPAND FASTER. AND OF COURSE THE MORE SPACE YOU HAVE, THE MORE OF THAT ENERGY YOU HAVE BECAUSE IT GOES WITH THE EXTRA SPACE. AND SO IN BOTH SITUATIONS, YOU ARE USUALLY USING THAT SAME PICTURE TO DESCRIBE THINGS. THEY HAVE SOME DIFFERENCES IN THAT, YOU KNOW, ONE OF THEM HAS TO TURN OFF. YOU KNOW? BECAUSE WE KNOW THAT THE, THAT THE -- OR WE BELIEVE THAT THE VERY EARLIEST PICTURE HAD A VERY QUICK, YOU KNOW, EXPONENTIAL - >WELL THE EXPONENTIAL SEEMS TO ME A HUGE DIFFERENCE. >>THAT'S TRUE. AND ON THE OTHER HAND, IF YOU LOOK AT THE VERY EARLIEST STAGES OF THE EXPONENTIAL, IT COULD LOOK LIKE WHAT WE SEE NOW. SO IN THAT SENSE, WE WON'T KNOW WHETHER THAT IS A FUNDAMENTAL DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO EPICS. I WOULD LIKE TO STEP BACK AND SAY THAT, YOU KNOW, WHAT WE FOUND IN OUR ATTEMPTS TO UNDERSTAND COSMOLOGY, HAS BEEN THAT AN AMAZINGLY SIMPLE SET OF PRINCIPLES AND AN AMAZINGLY SIMPLE STORY, HAS ENDED UP EXPLAINING HUGE AMOUNTS. >ALL OF WHICH ARE CONSISTENT WITH THE UNIVERSE HAVING A BEGINNING. >>EXACTLY. >AND, BUT BEGIN TO ENRICH THE UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT THAT BEGINNING IS. >>THAT'S RIGHT. THESE ARE ALL JUST LITTLE ADDITIONS TO THE STORY. OF COURSE THERE ARE DIFFERENT WAYS OF INTERPRETING THE BIG BANG. THERE'S ALSO A TENDENCY FOR US TO HEAR THE WORD BIG BANG AND THINK THAT IT MEANS AN EXPLOSION. AND THAT'S ALSO A SORT OF MISUNDERSTANDING OF WHAT THE THEORY IS SUPPOSED TO MEAN. BUT NONETHELESS, THE BASIC IDEA THAT WE CAME, THAT THE UNIVERSE WE SEE AROUND US APPARENTLY BEGAN IN A MUCH HOTTER, DENSER STATE. AND THEN ALL DISTANCES BETWEEN, YOU KNOW, ALL POINTS BECAME, YOU KNOW, MUCH LARGER, DOES SEEM TO BE CONSISTENT WITH EVERYTHING THAT WE SEE AROUND US. IN SOME SENSE, YOU KNOW, YOU MAY ALWAYS FIND YOURSELF PUSHING AGAINST A PHILOSOPHICAL QUESTION, WHICH IS, OKAY, SUPPOSE WE EXPLAIN THE WHOLE THING. AND AT THE VERY END, BY SAYING, OH ALL WE NEED TO DO IS TO WRITE DOWN THIS ONE PHYSICS EQUATION THAT EXPLAINS HOW PHYSICS WORKS, AND THEN SUDDENLY EVERYTHING ELSE HAPPENS. STILL YOU'RE IN THIS BUSINESS OF SAYING, ALL RIGHT. BUT THEN THE BEGINNING IS THE PHYSICS EQUATION AND HOW SATISFYING THAT FEELS TO YOU IS JUST PROBABLY PERSONAL TASTE. >IN MAGNIFYING OUR VISION OF REALITY, INFLATION IS KING OF THE COSMOS. THE TOTALITY OF REALITY BOUNDLESS, LIMITLESS, WITH UNTOLD NUMBERS OF UNIVERSES MULTIPLYING AND BRANCHING WILDLY. ALAN GUTH'S SPECTACULAR REALIZATION WAS THAT THE EXPONENTIAL EXPANSION OF SPACE WITHIN THE FIRST BILLION, BILLION, BILLION, BILLIONTH OF A SECOND, SET THE UNIVERSE TO BECOME AS WE KNOW IT TODAY. ANDREI LINDE AND PAUL STEINHARDT HELP MAKE INFLATION WORK. AND THEN ANDREI ENLARGED OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE COSMOS COLOSSALLY, WITH ETERNAL CHAOTIC INFLATION, THE SIZE OF THE COSMOS EFFECTIVELY INFINITE. ETERNAL CHAOTIC INFLATION IS IMMENSELY DISRUPTING. THE SIZE OF ALL UNIVERSES COMPARED TO OUR UNIVERSE IS FAR LARGER THAN THE SIZE OF OUR UNIVERSE COMPARED TO A SINGLE ATOM. AS COSMIC INFLATION REVEALS NEW WORLDS OF UNENDING REALITY, ALAN AND ANDREI ARE AS EXPLORERS SAILING THE UNKNOWN SEAS OF SPACE. THEIR ODYSSEY, BRINGING ALL OF US CLOSER TO TRUTH.

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Channel: Closer To Truth

Views: 30,570

Rating: undefined out of 5

Keywords: closer to truth, robert lawrence kuhn, Alexander Vilenkin, Alan Guth, Saul Perlmutter, Andrei Linde, nobel laureate, nobel prize saul perlmutter, Mysteries of Cosmic Inflation, inflation, cosmic inflation, early universe, expansion, universe expansion, Big Bang, Big Bang Theory, cosmology, beginning of the universe, expanding universe, astrophysics, astronomy, origin of the universe, how did the universe begin, education, closer to truth full episodes, closer to truth season 9

Id: 7Ic00GU3jcU

Channel Id: undefined

Length: 26min 46sec (1606 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 20 2020