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The Inflationary Universe Paperback – March 18, 1998

by Alan Guth (Author)

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This is the compelling, first-hand account of Alan Guth's paradigm-breaking discovery of the origins of the universe—and of his dramatic rise from young researcher to physics superstar. Guth's startling theory—widely regarded as one of the most important contributions to science during the twentieth century—states that the big bang was set into motion by a period of hyper-rapid “inflation,” lasting only a billion-trillion-billionth of a second. The Inflationary Universe is the passionate story of one leading scientist's effort to look behind the cosmic veil and explain how the universe began.

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About the Author

Alan Guth is V. F. Weisskopf Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In addition to being elected to the National Academy of Sciences and receiving many other academic awards, Newsweek has called him one of “The Top 25 American Innovators,” and Science Digest has ranked him among the “100 Brightest Scientists Under 40.”

Paperback: 358 pages
Publisher: Basic Books; First Paperback Edition edition (March 18, 1998)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 9780201328400
ISBN-13: 978-0201328400
ASIN: 0201328402
Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 66 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #800,602 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #877 in Cosmology (Books)

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Morgan Sundance

Still worth buying in 2018

May 29, 2018

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Guth is a stellar communicator and teacher. This book was published in 1997 and there have been important updates to acquired data since then. But Guth's clear, expository writing, and his many insightful analogies make this a great read for baseline understanding. He also includes a lot more detail than most pop science books that cover the same subject. I find it easier to ignore some detail if I prefer than the style of others' writing that have logical gaps that leave me confused. His writing is also thankfully precise. The inclusion of relevant appendices on related areas is extremely helpful, as is the glossary. We are very fortunate to have such a main contributor to this field take the time and the care to write this book. And his frank discussion of his professional anxieties on the road to his discoveries should be an inspiration to young scientists. I have found Youtube videos of lectures he has given as recently as 2015 that fill in the gaps since 1997, and they too are a pleasure.

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dfkizer

Dr. Guth Adds Bang to Big Bang

April 14, 2015

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I confess to being an admirer of Professor Guth. He is high on my list of scientists not only because of his groundbreaking work in adding the bang to the big bang, but also because he taught an undergraduate course on the early universe at MIT and made those lectures available to the public through the Internet.
Not to let my admiration overcome my objectivity, however, I would say that if you're level of interest is a casual "what's it all about," I would recommend a more popular version of cosmology.
But for those who are enchanted with cosmology as I am, this book can be read on two different levels. It book can be read as an interesting narrative of the development of the theory of how the universe proceeded from the big band with the personal story of Dr.Guth weaved into that narrative. Such readers may want to skip some of the detailed footnotes and more complex diagrams, but with a little effort, they can come away with a fairly good qualitative understanding of the inflationary period that preceded the standard big bang and also the standard big bang regime that followed.
This book can also be read on a more detailed level with the goal of gaining a semi-qualitative understanding of the ideas behind the inflationary period that preceded the standard big bang model and the standard big bang that followed. I suspect that some of the detailed footnotes and more complex diagrams may be rather rough sledding for those without a modest background in physics, but, with persistence, the work is worth the knowledge gained. There are occasions such as the recurring discussions of esoterica such as magnetic monopoles may test the resolve of readers who have never heard of these things. I think it won't diminish your essential knowledge if you tread lightly in those territories.
In summary, I believe that each person should select his/her own level at which to read this book. But for any level except the merely curious, I believe the mental exercise is worth the effort.

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ARE "POCKET UNIVERSES" PRODUCED IN AN INFINITE CYCLE?

July 20, 2015

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Alan Harvey Guth (born 1947) is an American theoretical physicist and cosmologist, who is Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

[NOTE: page numbers below refer to the 358-page paperback edition.]

He wrote in the Preface to this 1997 book, "this book is aimed primarily at the nonscientist with an interest in science... I have attempted to explain how particle theorists use the mathematics of fields ...to describe quantum particles, and how the properties of these fields lead ultimately to a mechanism---inflation---that can explain the origin of essentially all the matter and energy in the observed universe... In this book the development of inflation is recounted from a personal vantage point, since that is that I know best. It is definitely not intended as a thorough history of the research relevant to this work... I have attempted, nonetheless, to honestly describe the roles of the people with whom I interacted, since these were the players in the drama that I wanted to recreate." (Pg. xiv)

He outlines, "The inflationary universe is a theory of the `bang' of the big bang. The theory of inflation modifies our understanding of just the first tiny fraction of a second of the history of the universe, and then the description merges with that of the standard big bang theory, preserving all the successes of the older theory. But, because inflation explains the bang itself, it is a richer description, providing answers to a number of questions that the traditional big bang theory cannot address. It even allows us to consider such fascinating questions as whether other big bangs are continuing to happen far away, and whether it is possible in principle for a super-advanced civilization to recreate the big bang." (Pg. xiii)

He explains, "The central feature of the theory is a brief period of extraordinarily rapid expansion, or inflation... After the stupendous growth spurt of inflation the description merges smoothly with the standard big bang theory... the inflationary theory shows how all the mass could evolve from an initial seed weighing only about an ounce, with a diameter more than a billion times smaller than a proton... While the final verdict on inflationary cosmology is not yet in, the basic outline of the theory seems very persuasive... If inflation is correct, then the inflationary mechanism is responsible for the creation of essentially all the matter and energy in the universe. The theory also implies that the observed universe is only a minute fraction of the entire universe, and it strongly suggests that there are perhaps an infinite number of other universes that are completely disconnected from our own... it now seems likely that Lucretius was wrong. Conceivably, EVERYTHING can be created from nothing. And `everything' might include a lot more than what we can see." (Pg. 14-15) Later, he adds, "The inflationary universe theory derives from the big bang theory and adds to it, but does not replace it." (Pg. 34)

He states about the big bang theory, "the matter is assumed to have uniformly filled all of space at all times, right back to the instant of the big bang. There is no edge and to center to the distribution of matter. The expansion of the universe happens homogeneously, with every galaxy (on average) moving away from every other galaxy, as the entire space expands... [a questioner might object] It is hard to imagine what could possibly cause an explosion to happen simultaneously throughout the universe... Here I freely admit that the questioner has a good point---the idea of a simultaneous explosion throughout the universe does seem hard to accept... One of the attractive features of the inflationary universe theory is a new understanding of the homogeneity of the big bang. The inflationary universe can explain why the big bang explosion occurred homogeneously throughout the observed universe, while at the same time the theory suggests that the observed universe is only a minute part of a vastly larger space that is far from homogeneous." (Pg. 74-75)

He acknowledges, "one comes to a point of infinite density, infinite pressure, and infinite temperature... [that] is also frequently called a singularity... It is often said... that this singularity marks the beginning of the universe, the beginning of time itself. Perhaps this is so, but any honest cosmologist would admit that our knowledge here is very shaky. The extrapolation to arbitrarily high temperatures takes us far beyond the physics that we understand, so there is no good reason to trust it. The true history of the universe ... remains a mystery that we are probably still far from unraveling... If the extrapolation ... is not trustworthy, then a description such as `one second after the big bang' also becomes ambiguous." (Pg. 86-87) He adds, "So how far back should we trust the equations of the big bang theory? There is of course no definitive answer. If you asked a dozen physicists, you would probably get fourteen different answers along with five of six abstentions... I will nonetheless argue that such extrapolations are not crazy, as long as one is interested in qualitative features that do not depend on having all the details right." (Pg. 88-89)

He points out, "one must realize that grand unified theories [GUT] are not seen as the ultimate fundamental theory of nature. First, the ultimate theory must include gravity, which grand unified theories do not. Second, the grand unified theories are too ugly to be serious candidates for the ultimate theory. In particular, even the simplest GUT contains over twenty parameters... numbers... that must be measured experimentally before the theory can be used to make predictions.) Most particle physicists believe that the ultimate theory will be much simpler, with few if any free parameters... When we say that the unification scale is `put in by hand,' we mean that we presently have no understanding of why this hypothetical calculation of the future will give such a large number. So the advocates of grand unified theories are hoping that someday the reason will be found." (Pg. 135)

He recalls, "The energy that had been stored in the Higgs fields would produce high energy particles which would collide and create other particles... The excess of matter over antimatter could be established immediately after the decay of the false vacuum... I do not remember every trying to invent a name for this extraordinary phenomenon of exponential expansion, but my diary shows that by the end of December I had begun to call it `inflation.'" (Pg. 176) Later, he enthuses, "To a theoretical physicist, there is no greater joy than to see that this curious activity that we call calculation---the depositing of ink on paper, followed by throwing away the paper and depositing new ink on more paper---can actually tell us something about reality!" (Pg. 243)

He asserts, "such a localized big bang does not yet have an accepted name... I will call such a region a `pocket universe'... our entire observed universe is believed to be only a minute fraction of one of these pocket universes. The pocket universe... is only a minute fraction of all that exists... The process... goes on forever, producing an infinite number of pocket universes at an ever-increasing rate... Thus, a region of false vacuum does not produce merely one universe, but instead produces an infinite number of universes! In the cosmic shopping mall, an infinity of pocket universes can be purchased for the price of one... As the pocket universes live out their lives and recollapse or dwindle away, new universes are generated to take their place... While life in our pocket universe will presumably die out, life in the universe as a whole will thrive for eternity... eternal inflation ... implies a panoramic view of the whole universe that captures the same emotional appeal as the steady-state theory." (Pg. 246-248)

He admits, "Since the other pocket universes would be far too remote to ever observe, the concept of eternal inflation does not lead to directly testable predictions." (Pg. 249) He adds, "Because the properties of the observed universe are determined by the physics of inflation, they tell us nothing about what existed before inflation. The question of how it all began remains philosophically important, and it might still be possible to make persuasive arguments to justify some particular theory. However, if eternal inflation is correct, it will unfortunately be impossible to ever test these arguments by observation." (Pg. 250) Nevertheless, he contends, "Given the plausibility of eternal inflation, I believe that soon any cosmological theory that does not lead to eternal reproduction of universes will be considered as unimaginable as a species of bacteria that cannot reproduce." (Pg. 252)

He notes, "Alexander Vilenkin... suggested that the universe was created by quantum processes starting from `literally NOTHING,' meaning not only the absence of matter, but the absence of space and time as well... whether one can visualize it or not, Vilenkin showed that the concept of absolute nothingness is at least mathematically well-defined, and can be used as a starting point for theories of creation." (Pg. 273) He adds, "While the attempts to describe the materialization of the universe from nothing remain highly speculative, they represent an exciting enlargement of the boundaries of science... it would mean that the existence and history of the universe could be explained by the underlying laws of nature. That is, the laws of physics would imply the existence of the universe. We would have accomplished the spectacular goal of understanding why there is something rather than nothing... If the creation of the universe can be described as a quantum process, we would be left with one deep mystery of existence: What is it that determined the laws of physics?" (Pg. 276)

He concludes, "It is fair to say that inflation is not proven, but I believe that it is rapidly making its way from working hypothesis to accepted fact... inflation is at present the unique theory which allows us to calculate, to 15 decimal places, the mass density of the universe at one second after the big bang... Whether the prediction of a critical mass density for the early universe is said to be `bland' or not, this kind of precision is extraordinarily impressive. There is a strong suggestion that some form of inflation is responsible for the universe that we inhabit." (Pg. 286-287)

Guth is one of the most important figures in modern cosmological theory; and this book is (for a theoretical scientist!) unusually well-written and interesting. It will be virtually "must reading" for anyone seriously studying modern cosmological theories.

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Dev Chakraborty

Too bad they don't give Nobel prizes for theorists

May 22, 2017

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

As a physicist who strayed from hard science to the medical field, I read it once for effect and am reading it again to really understand the momentous discovery that he describes. He has a gift for explaining science without diluting it (contrast to Neil deGrasse Tyson. Of course, he will make much less money than Dr. Tyson). The book is written from both personal and professional perspectives, and I identified with his account of having to scrounge around for temporary positions (postdocs) while working and hoping for a big break. The guy is a genius and the scientific community is richer for having someone like him.

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