Cosmic Inflation: An Update to the Big Bang Theory

The Big Bang Theory is universally considered as the origin of universe. It doesn’t only explain key facts about our world, it has made a number of key predictions as well. For instance, the existence of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation as well as the exact proportions of the elements resulting from Big Bang Nucleosynthesis. It is considered a radically successful theory by any measure.

Still The Big Bang Theory leaves many serious questions unanswered. Some of these include:

·        Why is the universe so remarkably flat?

·        Why is the universe so uniform on large scales?

·        How did large-scale structures form in the universe?

The Big Bang Theory does not give satisfactory answers to these problems, if at all. Yet it is very important to explore them to have a proper understanding of the universe. This is where cosmic inflation comes in. First proposed in the early 1980s by the Russian physicist Alexei Starobinsky and the American physicist Alan Guth, cosmic inflation claims to solve all of the above problems (and more) in one fell swoop, using the simplifying power of exponential expansion.

In this talk, Shahryar Khan will first discuss the successes of the Big Bang Theory, followed by a discussion of the aforementioned problems with it. Then we will discuss inflation and how does it solve these problems. As a final cherry on top, some problems with inflation itself and some possible ideas about how to overcome them will be discussed.

About the speaker

Shahryar Khan is a physics graduate from Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad. He is currently engaged in research in theoretical cosmology and aims to start his PhD next year. Apart from physics and mathematics, he has avid interests in philosophy, computer science, zoology, art and music.