[LINK] On cosmic inflation, the Big Bang, and Andrei Linde

[rfmcdonald]

CBC's article

The new results were announced by a collaboration that includes researchers from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, the University of Minnesota, Stanford University, the California Institute of Technology and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The team plans to submit its results to a scientific journal this week, said its leader, John Kovac of Harvard.

For their research, astronomers scanned about 2 percent of the sky for three years with a telescope at the South Pole, chosen for its very dry air to aid in the observations.

They were looking for a specific pattern in light waves within the faint microwave glow left over from the Big Bang. The pattern has long been considered evidence of the rapid growth spurt, known as inflation. Kovac called it "the smoking gun signature of inflation."

The scientists say the light-wave pattern was caused by gravitational waves, which are ripples in the interweaving of space and time that sprawls through the universe. If confirmed, the new work would be the first detection of such waves from the birth of the universe, which have been called the first tremors of the Big Bang.

Arizona State's Krauss cautioned that it's possible that the light-wave pattern is not a sign of inflation, although he stressed that it's "extremely likely" that it is. It's "our best hope" for a direct test of whether the rapid growth spurt happened, he said.

The New Yorkergoes into more detail, here too.

What went viral about all this is the video of physicist Andrei Linde, the man who suggested the theory of cosmic inflation in the first place, being informed at his door of the news of his theory's confirmation.

"Stanford Professor Andrei Linde celebrates physics breakthrough" (Watch on YouTube)

This joyous video has just under 1.6 million views as of this posting.