Tag Archives: theory

Radical New Theory Rewrites the Story of the Earliest Universe

Radical New Theory Rewrites the Story of the Earliest Universe

Following the Big Bang, our universe expanded at an exponential rate. According to this theory, known as cosmic inflation, the explosive growth produced tiny quantum fluctuations that later evolved into galaxies. Cosmic inflation neatly explains how our universe got so large and mostly homogenous, and that’s why it’s remained a strong theory in cosmology for decades. But it’s far from …

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The Hunt for a Fundamental Theory of Quantum Gravity

The Hunt for a Fundamental Theory of Quantum Gravity

The world of Bousso’s new theorem still departs from our universe in notable ways. For mathematical convenience, he assumed that there’s an unlimited variety of particles—an unrealistic assumption that makes some physicists wonder whether this third layer matches reality (with its 17 or so known particles) any better than the second layer does. “We don’t have an infinite number of …

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