"In physical cosmology, cosmic inflation, cosmological inflation, or just inflation, is a theory of exponential expansion of space in the early universe."
A period of exponential expansion of the Universe that occurred immediately after the Big Bang, which explains its large-scale structure and homogeneity.
Big Bang Theory: The prevailing scientific theory of the origin of the universe, which posits that the universe began with a massive explosion of matter and energy approximately 13.8 billion years ago.
Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMBR): A faint electromagnetic radiation that permeates the entire universe, and is thought to be the afterglow of the Big Bang.
Quantum Mechanics: The branch of physics that deals with the behavior of matter and energy on the atomic and subatomic level, and which forms the theoretical foundation of many aspects of cosmology, including cosmic inflation.
General Relativity: The theory of gravitation developed by Albert Einstein, which is used to describe the behavior of massive objects over large distances, and is essential to understanding the structure and evolution of the universe.
Inflationary Cosmology: A theoretical model of the early universe that posits an extremely rapid period of expansion in the first fractions of a second after the Big Bang, which solves several problems with the standard Big Bang model and has become widely accepted by cosmologists.
Dark Matter and Dark Energy: Two mysterious substances that are thought to make up the vast majority of the mass and energy in the universe, respectively, but which have never been directly observed.
Baryogenesis: The process by which the universe produced an asymmetry between matter and antimatter, resulting in the predominance of matter we observe today.
The Higgs Boson: A subatomic particle that is thought to be responsible for giving other particles mass, and which may have played a role in the early universe.
The Anthropic Principle: The idea that certain observed properties of the universe (such as its apparent fine-tuning for life) can be explained by the notion that we are observing only those portions of the universe that are compatible with our own existence.
The Multiverse: The concept that there may be multiple universes beyond our own, each with its own unique physical laws and conditions. Some cosmologists argue that inflationary cosmology predicts the existence of such a multiverse.
"The inflationary epoch is believed to have lasted from 10−36 seconds to between 10−33 and 10−32 seconds after the Big Bang."
"The acceleration of this expansion due to dark energy began after the universe was already over 7.7 billion years old (5.4 billion years ago)."
"Notable contributions by several theoretical physicists, including Alexei Starobinsky at Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics, Alan Guth at Cornell University, and Andrei Linde at Lebedev Physical Institute."
"Alexei Starobinsky, Alan Guth, and Andrei Linde won the 2014 Kavli Prize 'for pioneering the theory of cosmic inflation'."
"It explains the origin of the large-scale structure of the cosmos."
"Quantum fluctuations in the microscopic inflationary region, magnified to cosmic size, become the seeds for the growth of structure in the Universe."
"...why the universe appears to be the same in all directions (isotropic), why the cosmic microwave background radiation is distributed evenly, why the universe is flat, and why no magnetic monopoles have been observed."
"The hypothetical field thought to be responsible for inflation is called the inflaton."
"Physicists Alan Guth of M.I.T., Andrei Linde of Stanford, and Paul Steinhardt of Princeton shared the prestigious Dirac Prize 'for development of the concept of inflation in cosmology'."
"In 2012 Guth and Linde were awarded the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for their invention and development of inflationary cosmology."