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Expert: - 6/16/2009


Question
Steve,
My (amateur) understanding is that the theory of "inflation" was developed to explain the relative uniformity of the universe.  I'm guessing that, with our experience with explosions, we intuitively can't believe that the big band itself could produce such uniformity.

My question is , rather than theorizing an expansion with no known mechanism, why wouldn't it be simpler to assume that the big bang did, in fact, produce exactly the uniformity we observe today?

Thanks,
Paul

Answer
But there's non-uniformity that we observe with WMAP and so on.  We need inflation to explain baryon density and so on.  Check it out, people have written plenty on it here:  http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/kenny/papers/inflation....

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Steve Nelson

Expertise

Fusion, solar flares, cosmic rays, radiation in space, and stellar physics questions. Generally, nuclear-related astrophysics, but I can usually point you in the right direction if it's not nuclear-related or if it's nuclear but not astrophysics.

Experience

Currently a physics professor at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin. Doctoral dissertation was on a reaction in CNO-cycle fusion, worked in gamma-ray astronomy in the space science division of the naval research laboratory in the high-energy space environment branch.

Organizations
Physics professor at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin.

Education/Credentials
Ph.D. in physics, research was on nuclear fusion reactions important in stellar fusion.

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