Cosmic Microwave Observations Yield More Evidence of Primordial Inflation

Physics Today | July 2001 | Bertram Schwarzchild

[RadioAstronomer]

I personally believe inflation is the best fit to current data.

[RadioAstronomer]

Bump

[longshadow]

Thanks for the bump.

I'm not sure, but there might have been a thread on this a few months back.

In any case, it is good to revist the latest info.

[Ranger]

So for the benefit of the unwashed masses, what the heck does this finding mean?

[B Knotts]

Inflation, eh?

Hmmm...so how much was a candy bar at the beginning of the universe?

Sorry. Bad joke.

[RadioAstronomer]

LOL!

[longshadow]

So for the benefit of the unwashed masses, what the heck does this finding mean?

It provides further evidence in support of the Inflationary variant of the Big Bang Theory of the formation of the Universe. That is to say that most Cosmologist accepted that some type of Big Bang scenario was the most likely explanation for the Universe; the evidence is mounting that among the various competing variants of BB cosmology, the so-called Inflationary variant (first proposed by Alan Guth) appears to be the most accurate one.

Don't know if I answered you question or not.....

Ping "PatrickHenry" for add'l details re: Guth's Inflationary Theory; PH is reading Guth's book.

[RadioAstronomer]

I'm not sure, but there might have been a thread on this a few months back.

Sigh! My first post and its an old one!

[longshadow]

Sigh! My first post and its an old one!

Not to worry. It's a good topic, worthy of revisiting IF we did cover it previously. It tends to get the "Talibanic Luddites" up in a frenzy, too.

[Physicist]

Here's the Boomerang result. I never get tired of posting this:

The only possible criticism is that the error bars seem to be too large. To my eye, the chi-squared per degree of freedom seems considerably less than one.

[PatrickHenry]

Ping "PatrickHenry" for add'l details re: Guth's Inflationary Theory; PH is reading Guth's book.

I'm here, but I'm far from an authority. There are, by the way, several flavors of inflationary theory, differing in details, all awaiting observational evidence to sort out the survivor theory. But inflation in general seems to be a winner.

[PatrickHenry]

I think your graphic got zapped, due to bandwith problems. They've been doing that during the current situation.

[Physicist]

It shows up fine for me. Any zapping must be at your ISP's end.

[oneway]

they're thought to be manifestations of sound like compressional waves in the plasma epoch

My thoughts exactley

[RadioAstronomer]

Thanks for the graphic! :)

[RadioAstronomer]

The only possible criticism is that the error bars seem to be too large. To my eye, the chi-squared per degree of freedom seems considerably less than one.

I'll have to think about that for a bit.

[longshadow]

As of this writing, NASA's MAP (Microwave Anisotropy Probe) satellite was scheduled for launch at the end of June. Frorn its quasi-stable perch at the Lagrange point L2, a million miles antisunward from Earth, MAP should be able to measure the CMB power spectrum with unprecedented sensitivity and precision.

Do you know if this instrument has been launched yet, and when it is scheduled to start producing useful data?

Has Vegas started running betting pools on the outcome of such experiments:

"Inflationary Cosmology is running 7-to-2, while straight vanilla Big Bang is lagging at 9-to-1, and Steady-State brings up the rear as the longshot of the day at 250-to-1."

Now there's a sport that would require some brains to be a truly knowledgeable handicapper!

[RadioAstronomer]

Steady-State brings up the rear as the longshot of the day at 250-to-1."

You missed the really long shot of a billion-to-one of a 6000 year old universe with no big bang. :)

[RadioAstronomer]

Ummm... Where did you get that number? Cite sources please.