1 00:00:08,800 --> 00:00:12,920 Speaker 1: Hey, Daniel, do you do anything about economics? Very little? Actually, 2 00:00:12,920 --> 00:00:15,640 Speaker 1: it's a big mystery to me. Can you think about 3 00:00:15,680 --> 00:00:19,160 Speaker 1: it like a physicist? You mean like give everything terrible 4 00:00:19,280 --> 00:00:23,079 Speaker 1: misleading names. Hey you said it. I didn't, But I 5 00:00:23,120 --> 00:00:25,439 Speaker 1: just mean, like, can you could explain economics using I 6 00:00:25,480 --> 00:00:28,520 Speaker 1: don't know particles? How would that work? You know? Like 7 00:00:28,680 --> 00:00:32,720 Speaker 1: what causes the recession? Answer a particle called the recess on? 8 00:00:33,200 --> 00:00:36,920 Speaker 1: Or what causes inflation and infloton? Yeah? I guess so 9 00:00:37,000 --> 00:00:39,360 Speaker 1: you could apply that strategy to anything, Like how do 10 00:00:39,440 --> 00:00:44,239 Speaker 1: cartoons get their ideas by the carton? Actually we get 11 00:00:44,240 --> 00:00:46,960 Speaker 1: our ideas the same way physicists due using the napton? 12 00:01:02,280 --> 00:01:04,160 Speaker 1: Hi am or Hey, I'm a cartoonists and the creator 13 00:01:04,200 --> 00:01:07,600 Speaker 1: of PhD comics. Hi, I'm Daniel. I'm a particle physicist 14 00:01:07,640 --> 00:01:10,679 Speaker 1: and a professor you see Irvine, And I'm doing experiments 15 00:01:10,720 --> 00:01:14,399 Speaker 1: to measure the minimum possible nap. Yeah, because I guess 16 00:01:14,440 --> 00:01:17,680 Speaker 1: your naps are quantum. Also, like, are you napping and 17 00:01:17,680 --> 00:01:19,800 Speaker 1: not napping at the same time? Because then that way 18 00:01:19,840 --> 00:01:22,080 Speaker 1: you can get paid for it for your job. Right, 19 00:01:22,319 --> 00:01:25,000 Speaker 1: I am getting paid while I nap, that's true. But 20 00:01:25,120 --> 00:01:28,960 Speaker 1: I'm experimenting to see what is the shortest useful amount 21 00:01:29,000 --> 00:01:31,920 Speaker 1: of nap? Interesting, So you have an alarm clock and 22 00:01:31,920 --> 00:01:34,800 Speaker 1: you're actually taking data. That's right. I'm exploring the fundamental 23 00:01:34,880 --> 00:01:37,640 Speaker 1: nature of nap at the smallest scale. I'm wondering, like, 24 00:01:37,720 --> 00:01:40,440 Speaker 1: you know, is a four minute nap really rejuvenating? Can 25 00:01:40,440 --> 00:01:42,880 Speaker 1: you take a two minute nap and feel better afterwards? 26 00:01:43,120 --> 00:01:45,160 Speaker 1: This is the kind of stuff I work on every day. 27 00:01:45,360 --> 00:01:48,920 Speaker 1: I see you mean shoddy science and if little evidence, 28 00:01:48,960 --> 00:01:52,720 Speaker 1: they call it subjective evidence. Look, if I need to 29 00:01:52,720 --> 00:01:54,920 Speaker 1: take a lot of data here to prove my point, 30 00:01:55,000 --> 00:01:57,400 Speaker 1: I'll do it, you know, for the science. Yeah, take 31 00:01:57,520 --> 00:01:59,920 Speaker 1: naps all day. Yeah. But welcome to our podcast. Dan 32 00:02:00,160 --> 00:02:02,520 Speaker 1: and Jorge Explained the Universe, a production of My Heart 33 00:02:02,600 --> 00:02:05,560 Speaker 1: Radio in which we break down the fundamental nature of 34 00:02:05,720 --> 00:02:09,000 Speaker 1: the universe, of space and time, of black holes, of 35 00:02:09,080 --> 00:02:13,280 Speaker 1: neutron stars, of galaxies, of particles, of strings, of everything 36 00:02:13,320 --> 00:02:16,720 Speaker 1: that came before and everything that will come. We asked 37 00:02:16,760 --> 00:02:20,520 Speaker 1: the biggest, deepest, hardest, craziest questions about the universe, and 38 00:02:20,560 --> 00:02:24,280 Speaker 1: we expect answers not from you, but from science. And 39 00:02:24,320 --> 00:02:26,440 Speaker 1: when we don't have the answers, we tell you about 40 00:02:26,520 --> 00:02:30,399 Speaker 1: everything that science has thought about these crazy amazing topics 41 00:02:30,600 --> 00:02:33,040 Speaker 1: and where we might be headed. That's right, because the 42 00:02:33,120 --> 00:02:36,280 Speaker 1: universe is huge and mysterious and full of questions, and 43 00:02:36,320 --> 00:02:40,040 Speaker 1: the search for answers doesn't take naps. The human quest 44 00:02:40,080 --> 00:02:42,400 Speaker 1: to find answers to the biggest questions in the universe 45 00:02:42,560 --> 00:02:44,919 Speaker 1: is ever going, and there's always someone in the world 46 00:02:44,960 --> 00:02:49,120 Speaker 1: doing it, so technically it never sleeps, and thank gosh 47 00:02:49,120 --> 00:02:51,400 Speaker 1: for that. It's sort of incredible to me that we 48 00:02:51,440 --> 00:02:55,120 Speaker 1: can tackle these biggest of questions. You know, how big 49 00:02:55,240 --> 00:02:57,280 Speaker 1: is the universe where did it come from? That we 50 00:02:57,360 --> 00:02:59,960 Speaker 1: actually have like a mechanism as these time little cree 51 00:03:00,080 --> 00:03:02,240 Speaker 1: cheers on these tiny little rock in one corner of 52 00:03:02,240 --> 00:03:05,360 Speaker 1: the universe to reach our minds out and maybe solve 53 00:03:05,480 --> 00:03:08,800 Speaker 1: these cosmic puzzles. Yeah, it's amazing. And we've only been 54 00:03:08,800 --> 00:03:10,639 Speaker 1: doing it for like a few hundred years, I mean 55 00:03:10,880 --> 00:03:13,080 Speaker 1: in earnest right, and so we've been able to do 56 00:03:13,160 --> 00:03:15,720 Speaker 1: a lot just from this little tiny floating rock in 57 00:03:15,800 --> 00:03:18,680 Speaker 1: one corner of the universe with the coded basically a 58 00:03:18,680 --> 00:03:20,640 Speaker 1: lot of where the universe came from. Yeah, and a 59 00:03:20,639 --> 00:03:23,120 Speaker 1: lot of those few hundred years were spent napping, and 60 00:03:23,160 --> 00:03:25,960 Speaker 1: so you know, it's even more impressive how much we've learned, right, 61 00:03:26,080 --> 00:03:28,000 Speaker 1: most of us done in Europe, I guess right. So 62 00:03:28,800 --> 00:03:32,720 Speaker 1: it's a siesta kind of afternoon tea. Though sometimes you 63 00:03:32,760 --> 00:03:34,920 Speaker 1: get great ideas during naps, often to wake up from 64 00:03:34,920 --> 00:03:36,920 Speaker 1: a nap and have like three good ideas for what 65 00:03:37,000 --> 00:03:40,400 Speaker 1: to do next, And you say often do you mean like, 66 00:03:40,640 --> 00:03:44,440 Speaker 1: sometimes you get terrible ideas too, and it's a wash 67 00:03:44,520 --> 00:03:48,119 Speaker 1: at the end. What's what's your head rate for nap? Brilliant? 68 00:03:48,920 --> 00:03:52,320 Speaker 1: All the ideas I have are terrible. But that's the process, right. 69 00:03:52,360 --> 00:03:54,920 Speaker 1: The first idea is always terrible, but sometimes it inspires 70 00:03:54,920 --> 00:03:57,520 Speaker 1: a better idea, maybe in you, maybe in the other 71 00:03:57,560 --> 00:04:01,000 Speaker 1: person you tell this idea to. Honestly, jokes aside, that's 72 00:04:01,000 --> 00:04:03,320 Speaker 1: one of the joys of collaborating with all the young 73 00:04:03,320 --> 00:04:05,320 Speaker 1: people in my group is that they come in with 74 00:04:05,360 --> 00:04:08,680 Speaker 1: a terrible idea and it inspires another better idea in 75 00:04:08,760 --> 00:04:12,000 Speaker 1: somebody else. That's the whole process of science. I thought 76 00:04:12,000 --> 00:04:13,320 Speaker 1: you were going to say that the joy was that 77 00:04:13,360 --> 00:04:15,440 Speaker 1: you can come up with terrible ideas and then they'll 78 00:04:15,480 --> 00:04:17,320 Speaker 1: do it, and then they'll tell you when it doesn't work, 79 00:04:17,480 --> 00:04:20,080 Speaker 1: so you can keep napping. There's that also, But it 80 00:04:20,240 --> 00:04:23,240 Speaker 1: is amazing how these naps, and these terrible ideas have 81 00:04:23,440 --> 00:04:27,960 Speaker 1: somehow coalesced into a pretty nice cohesive view of the 82 00:04:28,000 --> 00:04:32,160 Speaker 1: whole universe, of how it works, of its ancient, ancient history. 83 00:04:32,480 --> 00:04:35,400 Speaker 1: It's amazing what we've learned without really exploring, just by 84 00:04:35,480 --> 00:04:38,440 Speaker 1: gathering information from the light and the particles that happened 85 00:04:38,480 --> 00:04:40,480 Speaker 1: to fall on Earth. Yeah, and so we have a 86 00:04:40,480 --> 00:04:43,599 Speaker 1: pretty good picture of the universe, at least the observable universe, 87 00:04:43,640 --> 00:04:45,839 Speaker 1: and all the amazing things that happened in it, and 88 00:04:45,920 --> 00:04:48,600 Speaker 1: even its origin. We have a pretty good picture of 89 00:04:48,640 --> 00:04:51,360 Speaker 1: what happened when the universe was born, and how it 90 00:04:51,440 --> 00:04:54,560 Speaker 1: happened and how fast it happened. But there are still 91 00:04:54,640 --> 00:04:57,040 Speaker 1: big questions about it, that's right. One of those questions 92 00:04:57,120 --> 00:05:00,120 Speaker 1: is exactly how you define when it was born. And 93 00:05:00,400 --> 00:05:03,599 Speaker 1: we keep pushing further and further back in the cosmic history, 94 00:05:03,720 --> 00:05:06,359 Speaker 1: thinking back to how galaxies were formed, and before that, 95 00:05:06,400 --> 00:05:08,839 Speaker 1: how stars were formed, and before that, how the gas 96 00:05:08,880 --> 00:05:11,160 Speaker 1: that made those stars were formed, and before that, how 97 00:05:11,200 --> 00:05:13,680 Speaker 1: the particles that went into the gas were formed, and 98 00:05:13,839 --> 00:05:16,800 Speaker 1: even further and further back. But the further back we pushed, 99 00:05:16,800 --> 00:05:19,520 Speaker 1: the harder it is to understand what the causes of 100 00:05:19,520 --> 00:05:22,640 Speaker 1: those causes are, yeah, because looking for the causes of 101 00:05:22,680 --> 00:05:26,120 Speaker 1: the causes is what science is all about. And in particular, 102 00:05:26,200 --> 00:05:29,320 Speaker 1: we're asking this question about the beginning of the universe, 103 00:05:29,560 --> 00:05:32,520 Speaker 1: the Big Bang, or there's sort of a more technical 104 00:05:32,600 --> 00:05:34,840 Speaker 1: term for it, right, that's right. These days, an important 105 00:05:34,880 --> 00:05:36,680 Speaker 1: part of what we used to call the Big Bang 106 00:05:36,880 --> 00:05:40,640 Speaker 1: is this period of incredible expansion of the universe, which 107 00:05:40,640 --> 00:05:44,880 Speaker 1: we now call inflation, borrowing a term from economics. That 108 00:05:44,960 --> 00:05:47,679 Speaker 1: things get more expensive in the universe, also very rapidly 109 00:05:47,800 --> 00:05:50,600 Speaker 1: in those first moments technically, right, I mean, things and 110 00:05:50,760 --> 00:05:52,920 Speaker 1: things went up in value a lot. You used to 111 00:05:52,920 --> 00:05:54,880 Speaker 1: be able to buy a whole solar system with one star. 112 00:05:55,160 --> 00:05:57,280 Speaker 1: Now you need like a binary star system. Eventually you 113 00:05:57,320 --> 00:05:59,960 Speaker 1: need like a trinary star system. Eventually every star sist 114 00:06:00,160 --> 00:06:01,760 Speaker 1: is going to have like five or six stars in it. 115 00:06:02,080 --> 00:06:04,040 Speaker 1: Right yet, I mean, technically the universe used to fit 116 00:06:04,040 --> 00:06:07,040 Speaker 1: in your wallet before. Now you need a whole banking system, 117 00:06:07,080 --> 00:06:09,320 Speaker 1: if not more. That's right. And we keep getting these 118 00:06:09,360 --> 00:06:12,320 Speaker 1: descriptions of earlier and earlier times of the universe. But 119 00:06:12,440 --> 00:06:14,479 Speaker 1: as you say, we don't just want to find the 120 00:06:14,560 --> 00:06:16,640 Speaker 1: cause of this particular event. We want to find the 121 00:06:16,680 --> 00:06:18,640 Speaker 1: cause of that cause, and if that cause, and of 122 00:06:18,760 --> 00:06:21,960 Speaker 1: that cause, and hanging over this whole question, of course, 123 00:06:22,080 --> 00:06:25,040 Speaker 1: is the deeper philosophical question of was there a first 124 00:06:25,120 --> 00:06:28,440 Speaker 1: cause or do the causes just go back forever into 125 00:06:28,480 --> 00:06:31,400 Speaker 1: the depths of time causing each other. Yeah, and so 126 00:06:31,440 --> 00:06:33,480 Speaker 1: today we'll get to the root of the whole universe 127 00:06:33,520 --> 00:06:36,560 Speaker 1: here by asking a pretty big question about what caused 128 00:06:36,560 --> 00:06:39,520 Speaker 1: the Big Bang and inflation. So today on the program, 129 00:06:39,520 --> 00:06:49,440 Speaker 1: we'll be asking the question, what is an Inflaton? Now, Daniel, 130 00:06:49,440 --> 00:06:53,520 Speaker 1: is that Inflaton or Inflaton? It's French, so it's inflate inflict. 131 00:06:54,640 --> 00:06:57,839 Speaker 1: Feel like you've in sold so many French speakers in 132 00:06:57,880 --> 00:07:01,799 Speaker 1: both Canada and France when you for your French accent, 133 00:07:02,240 --> 00:07:04,320 Speaker 1: My attempt to speak French is insulting to the very 134 00:07:04,360 --> 00:07:07,200 Speaker 1: French language. Is that what you're saying? I am not French. 135 00:07:07,440 --> 00:07:09,640 Speaker 1: I'm just happy you're not trying to do a Spanish accent. 136 00:07:09,840 --> 00:07:12,560 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, exactly. Well, you know, in my brief attempt 137 00:07:12,640 --> 00:07:15,880 Speaker 1: to speak French, people who were actual French speakers told 138 00:07:15,880 --> 00:07:18,000 Speaker 1: me that my French accent was terrible. So then I 139 00:07:18,040 --> 00:07:21,280 Speaker 1: tried an exaggerated French accent like a pepper lepew sort 140 00:07:21,280 --> 00:07:23,440 Speaker 1: of insulting French accent, and then they were like, yes, 141 00:07:23,480 --> 00:07:26,280 Speaker 1: that's much better. No, they said better, They didn't say 142 00:07:26,320 --> 00:07:30,600 Speaker 1: it was good exactly. You should always take their word. 143 00:07:30,680 --> 00:07:33,440 Speaker 1: It's always an iterative process. But in this case, physicists 144 00:07:33,440 --> 00:07:36,400 Speaker 1: called this an infloton. Usually particles we invent we have 145 00:07:36,440 --> 00:07:39,440 Speaker 1: the suffix of on, like photon boson for me on. 146 00:07:39,640 --> 00:07:41,680 Speaker 1: So this would be an inflocton. I guess that gives 147 00:07:41,680 --> 00:07:45,160 Speaker 1: it sort of an element of individual nous or like succinctness, 148 00:07:45,200 --> 00:07:48,400 Speaker 1: you know, or like you know, wholeness. There's a unitarity 149 00:07:48,440 --> 00:07:50,280 Speaker 1: to it, yeah, I mean, it's not the electron ish 150 00:07:50,640 --> 00:07:54,720 Speaker 1: or the proton ing right. It's the proton right and 151 00:07:54,760 --> 00:07:57,960 Speaker 1: the electron Yeah, yeah, exactly. And so this is a 152 00:07:57,960 --> 00:08:00,560 Speaker 1: pretty interesting question. What is an inflocton? And did it 153 00:08:00,680 --> 00:08:04,320 Speaker 1: cause the Big Bang through inflation? And so, as usually, 154 00:08:04,320 --> 00:08:06,080 Speaker 1: we were wondering how many people out there had heard 155 00:08:06,080 --> 00:08:10,240 Speaker 1: of this interesting and theoretical and mysterious particle. So Daniel 156 00:08:10,240 --> 00:08:13,000 Speaker 1: went out there and as people on the internet, what 157 00:08:13,160 --> 00:08:15,320 Speaker 1: is an imfloton? And you don't have to be on 158 00:08:15,360 --> 00:08:17,920 Speaker 1: the internet to participate, You just have to be a 159 00:08:17,920 --> 00:08:21,240 Speaker 1: listener who wants to answer silly physics questions without the 160 00:08:21,280 --> 00:08:24,560 Speaker 1: opportunity to do any research. So reach out to me 161 00:08:24,640 --> 00:08:27,520 Speaker 1: if you'd like to participate to questions at Daniel and 162 00:08:27,680 --> 00:08:30,280 Speaker 1: Jorge dot com. I'll email you the questions and you 163 00:08:30,320 --> 00:08:33,600 Speaker 1: can just zip back the audio to us. Please participate. 164 00:08:33,840 --> 00:08:36,360 Speaker 1: Everybody's welcome. So think about it for a second. Do 165 00:08:36,400 --> 00:08:38,960 Speaker 1: you know what an infloton is or how would you 166 00:08:39,280 --> 00:08:41,960 Speaker 1: try to describe it? Here's what people had to say. 167 00:08:42,200 --> 00:08:45,480 Speaker 1: The word inflaton makes me think of inflation, So I 168 00:08:45,520 --> 00:08:52,280 Speaker 1: think an inflaton is theoretical or mathematical placeholder to explain 169 00:08:52,400 --> 00:08:56,360 Speaker 1: dark energy. So I have no idea what an inflaton is, 170 00:08:57,040 --> 00:09:01,480 Speaker 1: but it does make me think of me maybe particles 171 00:09:01,559 --> 00:09:07,000 Speaker 1: that are in an electro magnetic um shield, like what's 172 00:09:07,000 --> 00:09:11,640 Speaker 1: happening around Earth. I think inflation is happened at the 173 00:09:11,640 --> 00:09:15,680 Speaker 1: beginning of the Big Bang, where the space and all 174 00:09:15,720 --> 00:09:20,360 Speaker 1: the matter inflated into what we see. Now. You have 175 00:09:20,520 --> 00:09:24,120 Speaker 1: no idea. I've never heard about it, and I literally 176 00:09:24,160 --> 00:09:27,559 Speaker 1: could have just thought like maybe a new particle discovered 177 00:09:27,679 --> 00:09:30,440 Speaker 1: or based on the name, something to do with any 178 00:09:30,520 --> 00:09:35,360 Speaker 1: kind of inflations in the universe, maybe other than being 179 00:09:35,800 --> 00:09:39,040 Speaker 1: some type of particle. I have no idea. An inflaton 180 00:09:39,320 --> 00:09:44,239 Speaker 1: is a theoretical particle that is related to the mechanisms 181 00:09:44,280 --> 00:09:48,600 Speaker 1: of the inflation of the universe. Maybe it helps explain 182 00:09:48,679 --> 00:09:51,360 Speaker 1: why or how that happened. If I had to guess, 183 00:09:51,440 --> 00:09:55,040 Speaker 1: I'd say an inflaton has to do with inflation the 184 00:09:55,080 --> 00:09:57,960 Speaker 1: inflationary period of the early universe. So maybe a particle 185 00:09:58,040 --> 00:10:01,680 Speaker 1: that only existed during inflat So maybe this particle is 186 00:10:01,679 --> 00:10:04,480 Speaker 1: actually well named. What do you mean because nobody knows 187 00:10:04,480 --> 00:10:07,559 Speaker 1: what it is, because everybody has the idea that it's 188 00:10:07,559 --> 00:10:11,240 Speaker 1: connected somehow to cosmic inflation. Yeah. Yeah, it's a pretty 189 00:10:11,240 --> 00:10:13,360 Speaker 1: good naming this time. Well, I don't know. I mean, 190 00:10:13,440 --> 00:10:15,400 Speaker 1: let's find out what it does and how it's related 191 00:10:15,400 --> 00:10:18,640 Speaker 1: to inflation first before passing a judgment, you're almost going 192 00:10:18,679 --> 00:10:20,920 Speaker 1: to say something positive about a particle physics name, and 193 00:10:20,920 --> 00:10:24,920 Speaker 1: then you pull back at the last second. Check back 194 00:10:24,960 --> 00:10:27,240 Speaker 1: with me in an hour here, all right, we'll do 195 00:10:27,440 --> 00:10:29,559 Speaker 1: I'll let you know. But yeah, I guess most people 196 00:10:29,600 --> 00:10:32,120 Speaker 1: connected it to inflation, which is good, although some people 197 00:10:32,320 --> 00:10:35,360 Speaker 1: try to connect it to dark energy maybe and some 198 00:10:35,440 --> 00:10:37,480 Speaker 1: people just had no idea. Yeah, And the connection to 199 00:10:37,559 --> 00:10:40,520 Speaker 1: dark energy is not a terrible one, because inflation is 200 00:10:40,559 --> 00:10:43,760 Speaker 1: a big expansion of the universe, and dark energy is 201 00:10:43,920 --> 00:10:47,640 Speaker 1: just the observation that that's expansion. This accelerating expansion is 202 00:10:47,679 --> 00:10:50,400 Speaker 1: still continuing to present day. So as we might dig 203 00:10:50,440 --> 00:10:54,080 Speaker 1: into later, there might be connections between inflation and dark energy. 204 00:10:54,800 --> 00:10:56,839 Speaker 1: All right, well, let's take the first step here and 205 00:10:56,920 --> 00:11:00,440 Speaker 1: let's talk about what is inflation. So we talked about 206 00:11:00,559 --> 00:11:02,520 Speaker 1: how it's part of the Big Bang, but it's not 207 00:11:02,600 --> 00:11:04,520 Speaker 1: sort of the whole Big Bang, right, that's right, And 208 00:11:04,559 --> 00:11:06,640 Speaker 1: this sort of an evolution of what we mean by 209 00:11:06,720 --> 00:11:09,480 Speaker 1: the Big Bang. I think the initial idea for a 210 00:11:09,480 --> 00:11:12,240 Speaker 1: big bang is sort of like a tiny little dot 211 00:11:12,320 --> 00:11:16,559 Speaker 1: of matter sitting in deeply empty space and then exploding 212 00:11:16,600 --> 00:11:19,080 Speaker 1: that you had infinitely dense matter of singularity like you 213 00:11:19,120 --> 00:11:21,360 Speaker 1: might imagine exists in the heart of a black hole, 214 00:11:21,559 --> 00:11:24,400 Speaker 1: which then exploded all the way through space, and then 215 00:11:24,440 --> 00:11:27,040 Speaker 1: that matter is moving through space. That's sort of like 216 00:11:27,080 --> 00:11:29,440 Speaker 1: the early ideas of a big bang, right right, Like 217 00:11:29,440 --> 00:11:31,360 Speaker 1: we thought maybe it was like a grenade or something 218 00:11:31,400 --> 00:11:34,200 Speaker 1: that was just sitting there in space exactly these days 219 00:11:34,200 --> 00:11:36,320 Speaker 1: we have a different concept of how the Big Bang 220 00:11:36,400 --> 00:11:39,080 Speaker 1: might have happened. The crucial difference is that it's not 221 00:11:39,160 --> 00:11:42,840 Speaker 1: an explosion of stuff through space, but an expansion of 222 00:11:42,920 --> 00:11:46,600 Speaker 1: space itself. The space itself gets stretched, and so you 223 00:11:46,640 --> 00:11:49,400 Speaker 1: don't need like a tiny dot of matter inside big 224 00:11:49,440 --> 00:11:52,920 Speaker 1: empty space. You can have space itself be already infinite 225 00:11:53,000 --> 00:11:56,160 Speaker 1: and already filled with matter. But that matter was hot 226 00:11:56,200 --> 00:11:59,719 Speaker 1: and dense, and then it got stretched out, it got 227 00:12:00,040 --> 00:12:04,920 Speaker 1: banded into a cooler, more separated, more dilute universe. So 228 00:12:04,960 --> 00:12:07,920 Speaker 1: that's the idea of inflation, that you took space itself 229 00:12:07,960 --> 00:12:10,840 Speaker 1: and stretched it and expanded it. So we've reimagined the 230 00:12:10,840 --> 00:12:13,480 Speaker 1: Big Bang is having this period we call inflation where 231 00:12:13,480 --> 00:12:15,880 Speaker 1: the universe goes from very very dense to very very 232 00:12:15,960 --> 00:12:19,160 Speaker 1: not dense. It's like the whole room where stuff was 233 00:12:19,320 --> 00:12:22,199 Speaker 1: actually is what also got bigger. Right, It's not just 234 00:12:22,240 --> 00:12:24,520 Speaker 1: like the stuff got bigger, it's like the room got 235 00:12:24,520 --> 00:12:27,600 Speaker 1: bigger too, exactly. And another important difference is that this 236 00:12:27,679 --> 00:12:31,720 Speaker 1: doesn't need a singularity like one problem with the idea 237 00:12:31,760 --> 00:12:34,400 Speaker 1: of a big bang is this concept of a singularity. 238 00:12:34,400 --> 00:12:38,400 Speaker 1: When the universe was like infinitely dense, infinities don't really 239 00:12:38,440 --> 00:12:40,880 Speaker 1: appear in nature as far as we can tell. I mean, 240 00:12:41,120 --> 00:12:44,960 Speaker 1: the universe might be spatially infinite, it might be infinite 241 00:12:45,000 --> 00:12:48,400 Speaker 1: all way back in time, but nobody's ever observed any infinities. 242 00:12:48,720 --> 00:12:51,120 Speaker 1: This is a concern also for singularities at the heart 243 00:12:51,120 --> 00:12:54,400 Speaker 1: of black holes, which we think are inconsistent with quantum mechanics. 244 00:12:54,440 --> 00:12:57,160 Speaker 1: So this singularity the beginning of the universe. For the 245 00:12:57,280 --> 00:12:59,640 Speaker 1: early Big Bang models, it's always sort of a problem, 246 00:12:59,720 --> 00:13:01,800 Speaker 1: and this replaces it. This says, well, you don't have 247 00:13:01,800 --> 00:13:04,559 Speaker 1: a singularity. You just start out with something really, really 248 00:13:04,600 --> 00:13:07,440 Speaker 1: hot and dense, and then you get this massive expansion 249 00:13:07,600 --> 00:13:11,360 Speaker 1: of it. And this expansion is really dramatic. We're talking 250 00:13:11,360 --> 00:13:14,360 Speaker 1: about an expansion of the factor of ten to the thirty. 251 00:13:14,679 --> 00:13:17,720 Speaker 1: That's ten with thirty zeros past it. Right, It's like, 252 00:13:17,760 --> 00:13:19,840 Speaker 1: I don't even know what the prefix for that is. 253 00:13:20,000 --> 00:13:23,000 Speaker 1: I think it's an influent number, right, it's an influllion. 254 00:13:23,240 --> 00:13:26,680 Speaker 1: I think it's a gazillion number maybe, but the gillion anyway, 255 00:13:26,720 --> 00:13:29,120 Speaker 1: it's a huge number. It's hard to even really imagine. 256 00:13:29,160 --> 00:13:32,360 Speaker 1: And the whole thing happened intend to the minus thirty 257 00:13:32,440 --> 00:13:36,280 Speaker 1: two seconds. So it's this incredible expansion. You know, something 258 00:13:36,320 --> 00:13:39,720 Speaker 1: the size of a centimeter now becomes trillions and trillions 259 00:13:39,720 --> 00:13:43,199 Speaker 1: of kilometers long, all intended to minus thirty two seconds, 260 00:13:43,320 --> 00:13:45,680 Speaker 1: and that's just to paint a picture that's like zero 261 00:13:45,760 --> 00:13:48,840 Speaker 1: point and then thirty two zeros and then a one 262 00:13:49,160 --> 00:13:53,040 Speaker 1: seconds exactly. So it's a really short amount of time, obviously, 263 00:13:53,160 --> 00:13:56,320 Speaker 1: especially in the context of the whole history of the universe, right, 264 00:13:56,360 --> 00:13:58,960 Speaker 1: which is fourteen billion years, and it's maybe the most 265 00:13:59,040 --> 00:14:02,160 Speaker 1: dramatic thing that's ever happened. It started with a bang. 266 00:14:02,520 --> 00:14:05,120 Speaker 1: But is it a coincidence that, you know, the during 267 00:14:05,160 --> 00:14:08,480 Speaker 1: inflation the universe expanded by tend to the thirty intend 268 00:14:08,520 --> 00:14:11,480 Speaker 1: to the negative thirty two, like that seems like pretty symmetric. 269 00:14:11,559 --> 00:14:13,839 Speaker 1: Somehow they do seem sort of related, But there's a 270 00:14:13,840 --> 00:14:16,600 Speaker 1: lot of uncertainty in those numbers. Different models of inflation 271 00:14:16,640 --> 00:14:19,960 Speaker 1: give you different numbers. Some models of inflation have more expansion, 272 00:14:20,000 --> 00:14:22,280 Speaker 1: tend to the fifty even up to tend to the seventy, 273 00:14:22,360 --> 00:14:24,320 Speaker 1: and some models of inflation to think this might have 274 00:14:24,320 --> 00:14:26,680 Speaker 1: happened faster down to tend to the minus thirty six 275 00:14:26,760 --> 00:14:29,200 Speaker 1: even for example. So there's a lot of uncertainty. So 276 00:14:29,600 --> 00:14:31,920 Speaker 1: you're saying your theories are like plus or minus to 277 00:14:32,080 --> 00:14:35,240 Speaker 1: thet you know, just a small error. Yeah, and later 278 00:14:35,320 --> 00:14:37,280 Speaker 1: on we'll talk about you know, mistakes. We've made that 279 00:14:37,280 --> 00:14:40,160 Speaker 1: a factor tend to the one hundred. So you know, 280 00:14:40,360 --> 00:14:43,440 Speaker 1: when you're taking on big questions, you sometimes make big mistakes. 281 00:14:43,520 --> 00:14:46,040 Speaker 1: Just like we said, sometimes your first idea is wrong. 282 00:14:46,080 --> 00:14:49,440 Speaker 1: In fact, nine of your ideas are probably wrong. Sometimes 283 00:14:49,440 --> 00:14:53,480 Speaker 1: you have a bad nap. I tend to overslept by 284 00:14:53,520 --> 00:14:58,280 Speaker 1: tending the thirty hours, and now the universe is over. 285 00:14:58,360 --> 00:15:00,400 Speaker 1: As long as I get overpaid by tend of the 286 00:15:00,440 --> 00:15:02,920 Speaker 1: thirty that's no problem for me. And so this is 287 00:15:03,000 --> 00:15:05,280 Speaker 1: kind of a crazy theory, right, I remember talking about 288 00:15:05,320 --> 00:15:08,000 Speaker 1: this for our books, sent for some of the stuff 289 00:15:08,040 --> 00:15:10,280 Speaker 1: that we do together. And it's sort of a crazy idea, 290 00:15:10,400 --> 00:15:13,120 Speaker 1: right that the the fact that the universe expanded so 291 00:15:13,200 --> 00:15:15,400 Speaker 1: fast and so much in such a little amount of time. 292 00:15:15,440 --> 00:15:17,880 Speaker 1: But that's sort of the only thing that makes sense, 293 00:15:18,000 --> 00:15:20,240 Speaker 1: right from what we see and from our theories about 294 00:15:20,240 --> 00:15:23,560 Speaker 1: the universe. Yeah, this idea is not just something invented 295 00:15:23,600 --> 00:15:26,120 Speaker 1: by theories too have a bad nap. It's something which 296 00:15:26,200 --> 00:15:29,040 Speaker 1: solves a lot of problems with the old Big Bang theory. 297 00:15:29,200 --> 00:15:31,400 Speaker 1: The old Big Bang theory and this explosion of a 298 00:15:31,400 --> 00:15:35,440 Speaker 1: big universe grenade didn't explain what we actually saw out 299 00:15:35,480 --> 00:15:38,240 Speaker 1: there in the universe. It was hard to sort of 300 00:15:38,280 --> 00:15:40,440 Speaker 1: make that fit. And one of the biggest problems with 301 00:15:40,480 --> 00:15:43,800 Speaker 1: that theory is that it didn't explain basically how smooth 302 00:15:44,080 --> 00:15:47,760 Speaker 1: the universe is. Like we are getting photons right now 303 00:15:47,920 --> 00:15:51,360 Speaker 1: from parts of the universe that are very very far apart. 304 00:15:51,840 --> 00:15:54,840 Speaker 1: Like if you look to the left, you're getting photons 305 00:15:54,880 --> 00:15:57,240 Speaker 1: from the very beginning of the universe, and those photons 306 00:15:57,240 --> 00:15:59,480 Speaker 1: are coming from very very far away. And then you 307 00:15:59,520 --> 00:16:01,520 Speaker 1: look to the right and you're getting photons from a 308 00:16:01,600 --> 00:16:04,040 Speaker 1: totally different part of the universe that have been traveling 309 00:16:04,040 --> 00:16:06,960 Speaker 1: for the whole history of the universe. Now in theory, 310 00:16:07,200 --> 00:16:10,400 Speaker 1: those photons are meeting for the very first time. So 311 00:16:10,480 --> 00:16:12,720 Speaker 1: the patches of the universe that they came from have 312 00:16:12,880 --> 00:16:15,600 Speaker 1: never been in contact before, right, Their photons have been 313 00:16:15,640 --> 00:16:18,280 Speaker 1: traveling the whole history of the universe, just meeting today 314 00:16:18,320 --> 00:16:20,760 Speaker 1: for the very first time. They've had no chance to 315 00:16:20,800 --> 00:16:23,080 Speaker 1: coordinate or talk to each other. But what we see 316 00:16:23,120 --> 00:16:26,080 Speaker 1: out there in the universe is that everything seems to 317 00:16:26,120 --> 00:16:29,400 Speaker 1: be about the same temperature, like those photons have about 318 00:16:29,480 --> 00:16:31,800 Speaker 1: the same energy, And that's the kind of thing you 319 00:16:31,840 --> 00:16:35,120 Speaker 1: expect to happen when stuff is in contact with each other, 320 00:16:35,360 --> 00:16:38,160 Speaker 1: like when you first pour cream into your coffee, you 321 00:16:38,200 --> 00:16:40,160 Speaker 1: have hot spots and cold spots. But then you wait 322 00:16:40,160 --> 00:16:42,000 Speaker 1: a little while and this stuff talks to each other 323 00:16:42,080 --> 00:16:45,920 Speaker 1: and exchanges photons, and everything becomes smooth and evenly temperatured. 324 00:16:46,240 --> 00:16:50,000 Speaker 1: The universe seems sort of smooth and evenly temperatured, even 325 00:16:50,040 --> 00:16:53,400 Speaker 1: though parts of it never have spoken before. Right. Right, 326 00:16:53,400 --> 00:16:54,800 Speaker 1: it's like you look to the right and you look 327 00:16:54,840 --> 00:16:57,200 Speaker 1: to the lout and you don't see any like hot 328 00:16:57,200 --> 00:16:59,840 Speaker 1: spots or could spots in the universe. Right, It's like 329 00:17:00,200 --> 00:17:02,680 Speaker 1: the universe had come from a grenade. You might expect, 330 00:17:02,720 --> 00:17:04,720 Speaker 1: like when one direction it would look hotter and the 331 00:17:04,720 --> 00:17:06,879 Speaker 1: other direction would look colder. That's right, And we do 332 00:17:06,960 --> 00:17:09,639 Speaker 1: see some very small variations. We'll talk about that in 333 00:17:09,680 --> 00:17:12,840 Speaker 1: a minute. In the cosmic microwave background radiation. That's this 334 00:17:12,960 --> 00:17:15,160 Speaker 1: very very old light that we're seeing from the very 335 00:17:15,160 --> 00:17:19,560 Speaker 1: early universe. But it's remarkably smooth. It's much smoother than 336 00:17:19,600 --> 00:17:23,800 Speaker 1: it really should be. And so inflation solves this problem 337 00:17:23,840 --> 00:17:27,000 Speaker 1: because inflation says, oh, no big deal. These guys were 338 00:17:27,000 --> 00:17:30,560 Speaker 1: in contact fourteen billion years ago before I stretched the 339 00:17:30,560 --> 00:17:34,480 Speaker 1: whole universe. These things were close enough to be exchanging photons, 340 00:17:34,480 --> 00:17:36,879 Speaker 1: to be talking to each other, to be sharing their energy, 341 00:17:37,080 --> 00:17:41,439 Speaker 1: to smooth out any big lumps, any big variations. And 342 00:17:41,560 --> 00:17:44,320 Speaker 1: that's why the universe looks so smooth, because it had 343 00:17:44,359 --> 00:17:47,359 Speaker 1: a chance to sort of mix and become even temperatured 344 00:17:47,720 --> 00:17:50,680 Speaker 1: before it got stretched out to be so massive. I guess, 345 00:17:50,880 --> 00:17:53,640 Speaker 1: are you assuming that before the Big Bang, before this 346 00:17:53,720 --> 00:17:57,760 Speaker 1: inflation period, things were stable, like things were hanging out 347 00:17:57,800 --> 00:18:00,840 Speaker 1: in this superdense state for a while, or are you 348 00:18:00,840 --> 00:18:03,080 Speaker 1: saying just from being so crunched together so much that 349 00:18:03,160 --> 00:18:05,880 Speaker 1: they would have had a chance to even out. Yeah, 350 00:18:05,920 --> 00:18:08,200 Speaker 1: I wouldn't say a while, because we're talking like ten 351 00:18:08,280 --> 00:18:12,120 Speaker 1: to the minus thirty seconds, but long enough to thermalize, 352 00:18:12,160 --> 00:18:15,560 Speaker 1: long enough to come into equilibrium. We think that whatever 353 00:18:15,600 --> 00:18:18,720 Speaker 1: happened before inflation was there for long enough for things 354 00:18:18,760 --> 00:18:22,119 Speaker 1: to smooth out mostly smooth out to the level where 355 00:18:22,440 --> 00:18:26,080 Speaker 1: all you expect are random quantum fluctuations. Like nothing in 356 00:18:26,119 --> 00:18:29,640 Speaker 1: the universe is perfectly smooth because of quantum mechanics, you're 357 00:18:29,640 --> 00:18:33,240 Speaker 1: always getting virtual particles bubbling up and and creating tiny 358 00:18:33,320 --> 00:18:35,760 Speaker 1: little pockets of extra density. But that's the idea that 359 00:18:35,800 --> 00:18:38,640 Speaker 1: the universe had a chance to even out and smooth 360 00:18:38,640 --> 00:18:41,239 Speaker 1: out down to the level of quantum fluctuations. And so 361 00:18:41,320 --> 00:18:43,399 Speaker 1: if that's true, then you should look out into the 362 00:18:43,480 --> 00:18:46,320 Speaker 1: universe and see it be mostly smooth with a few 363 00:18:46,520 --> 00:18:49,920 Speaker 1: little wrinkles. But the Big Bang theory would suggest something 364 00:18:50,000 --> 00:18:53,440 Speaker 1: much more dramatic, right, would suggest that things have never 365 00:18:53,480 --> 00:18:56,520 Speaker 1: been in contact before, and so there's no way that 366 00:18:56,560 --> 00:18:59,160 Speaker 1: these things could be so smooth. Right, So I guess 367 00:18:59,160 --> 00:19:01,760 Speaker 1: the only way to plane the sort of even temperature 368 00:19:01,760 --> 00:19:04,040 Speaker 1: of the universe is if it's space itself with some 369 00:19:04,200 --> 00:19:07,879 Speaker 1: what's crunched together before, and we don't expect it to 370 00:19:07,920 --> 00:19:11,800 Speaker 1: be perfectly even, right, we have these quantum fluctuations. Any 371 00:19:11,880 --> 00:19:14,920 Speaker 1: field in space is never gonna be like totally even 372 00:19:15,000 --> 00:19:17,679 Speaker 1: or smooth. There's always gonna be virtual particles bubbling up 373 00:19:17,680 --> 00:19:21,520 Speaker 1: in small quantum randomness happening. And so inflation also explains 374 00:19:22,000 --> 00:19:24,679 Speaker 1: why we have structure in the universe today. Like, the 375 00:19:24,760 --> 00:19:27,119 Speaker 1: universe is not totally smooth. It's not like we have 376 00:19:27,440 --> 00:19:30,480 Speaker 1: one hydrogen atom per light year or something like that. 377 00:19:30,760 --> 00:19:33,600 Speaker 1: We haven't spread out matter through the universe like peanut 378 00:19:33,600 --> 00:19:35,760 Speaker 1: butter on a piece of bread. It is a little 379 00:19:35,760 --> 00:19:38,640 Speaker 1: bit lumpy, right. You have planets and stars and galaxies, 380 00:19:38,840 --> 00:19:43,399 Speaker 1: and those lumps come from these little initial quantum fluctuations 381 00:19:43,440 --> 00:19:47,200 Speaker 1: in the pre inflationary matter whatever that was before inflation, 382 00:19:47,359 --> 00:19:50,840 Speaker 1: there little quantum fluctuations. It's mostly smoothed out. You get 383 00:19:50,920 --> 00:19:54,640 Speaker 1: little quantum fluctuations, and then those get blown up by 384 00:19:54,680 --> 00:19:57,280 Speaker 1: inflation to be the seeds of the structure that we 385 00:19:57,320 --> 00:20:00,040 Speaker 1: see today. Right, Well, I guess you expect gravity to 386 00:20:00,119 --> 00:20:02,879 Speaker 1: give a smooth universe structure. But I think what you 387 00:20:03,000 --> 00:20:05,760 Speaker 1: said before is that gravity isn't enough to give us 388 00:20:05,800 --> 00:20:08,600 Speaker 1: the structure that we see today, right, like the galaxies 389 00:20:08,640 --> 00:20:11,800 Speaker 1: and the galaxy clusters, like, you need something more to 390 00:20:11,880 --> 00:20:14,240 Speaker 1: explain the structure. And one good source for that structure 391 00:20:14,320 --> 00:20:17,600 Speaker 1: to come from is from the quantum fluctuations, which would 392 00:20:17,600 --> 00:20:20,679 Speaker 1: only happen if space itself also crunched together. Yes, so 393 00:20:20,720 --> 00:20:24,119 Speaker 1: these initial quantum fluctuations get blown up by inflation to 394 00:20:24,160 --> 00:20:26,520 Speaker 1: be on a larger scale, and then gravity takes over, 395 00:20:26,600 --> 00:20:28,680 Speaker 1: as you say, and you know, you have a universe 396 00:20:28,720 --> 00:20:31,520 Speaker 1: filled with matter with some variations in it, and then 397 00:20:31,560 --> 00:20:34,480 Speaker 1: gravity takes over and clumps that stuff together and you 398 00:20:34,560 --> 00:20:37,280 Speaker 1: get big blobs which turn into galaxies and stars and 399 00:20:37,320 --> 00:20:39,360 Speaker 1: planets and all that kind of stuff. But gravity can 400 00:20:39,359 --> 00:20:41,560 Speaker 1: only do that if it has something to start with, 401 00:20:41,800 --> 00:20:44,800 Speaker 1: if it was perfectly smooth to begin with. Gravity can't 402 00:20:44,840 --> 00:20:47,480 Speaker 1: get a foothold because everything is being pulled in all 403 00:20:47,520 --> 00:20:49,960 Speaker 1: directions but at the same amount, and so there's sort 404 00:20:50,000 --> 00:20:51,960 Speaker 1: of nothing to get it going, all right, So then 405 00:20:52,000 --> 00:20:55,040 Speaker 1: inflation makes sense because it sort of explains the way 406 00:20:55,080 --> 00:20:58,000 Speaker 1: things are and what we see out there in the universe, 407 00:20:58,400 --> 00:21:00,520 Speaker 1: and it also makes some predictions out some of the 408 00:21:00,600 --> 00:21:02,920 Speaker 1: background radiation that we see out there, and so let's 409 00:21:02,960 --> 00:21:05,320 Speaker 1: get into that. But first let's take a quick break, 410 00:21:17,960 --> 00:21:22,320 Speaker 1: all right, Daniel, we're talking about inflation and why Hamburger 411 00:21:22,400 --> 00:21:24,800 Speaker 1: costs more these days because of the Big Bang, right, 412 00:21:25,960 --> 00:21:29,800 Speaker 1: because because it was made in the forge of quantum fluctuations. 413 00:21:30,000 --> 00:21:32,560 Speaker 1: It's because of the Hamburger on particles. Yeah, Now we're 414 00:21:32,560 --> 00:21:34,960 Speaker 1: talking about the beginning of the universe and the period 415 00:21:35,320 --> 00:21:38,040 Speaker 1: during the Big Bang in which things blew up really 416 00:21:38,080 --> 00:21:41,120 Speaker 1: fast and lot, and that's called inflation, and we're talking 417 00:21:41,119 --> 00:21:44,080 Speaker 1: about what might be costing inflation. But first we talked 418 00:21:44,119 --> 00:21:46,399 Speaker 1: about sort of why inflation makes sense, because it is 419 00:21:46,400 --> 00:21:48,879 Speaker 1: a crazy idea and we know it sort of explains 420 00:21:48,920 --> 00:21:50,840 Speaker 1: a lot of things, and it also makes some predictions 421 00:21:50,840 --> 00:21:52,959 Speaker 1: which we can verify. Right, you have to cast your 422 00:21:52,960 --> 00:21:57,240 Speaker 1: mind back about years before we had really detailed measurements 423 00:21:57,280 --> 00:22:00,960 Speaker 1: of the cosmic microwave background radiation. Remember, these are photons, 424 00:22:01,040 --> 00:22:03,480 Speaker 1: which are the sort of the oldest light in the universe. 425 00:22:03,680 --> 00:22:06,280 Speaker 1: The universe was a hot and dense plasma like the 426 00:22:06,280 --> 00:22:08,679 Speaker 1: center of the Sun. And when a photon is emitted 427 00:22:08,680 --> 00:22:10,119 Speaker 1: in the center of the Sun, it doesn't just like 428 00:22:10,200 --> 00:22:12,679 Speaker 1: fly out of the Sun. It gets reabsorbed because the 429 00:22:12,720 --> 00:22:15,239 Speaker 1: Sun is opaque. So the whole universe was like that. 430 00:22:15,320 --> 00:22:18,000 Speaker 1: It was thick and opaque, and photons that were made 431 00:22:18,040 --> 00:22:21,399 Speaker 1: were just reabsorbed. Then things cooled down enough so that 432 00:22:21,480 --> 00:22:24,960 Speaker 1: suddenly the universe became transparent and photons made at that 433 00:22:25,160 --> 00:22:28,240 Speaker 1: moment are still flying around through the universe. So that's 434 00:22:28,320 --> 00:22:31,160 Speaker 1: the oldest light that we can see, and that gives 435 00:22:31,200 --> 00:22:34,040 Speaker 1: us a sense for like what the temperature was at 436 00:22:34,040 --> 00:22:36,800 Speaker 1: any place in the universe, and there are little hot 437 00:22:36,800 --> 00:22:39,280 Speaker 1: spots and there were little cold spots. So this light 438 00:22:39,359 --> 00:22:41,800 Speaker 1: was first discovered in the sixties. It was really evidence 439 00:22:41,880 --> 00:22:45,119 Speaker 1: that the universe used to be hot and dense, and 440 00:22:45,160 --> 00:22:48,200 Speaker 1: then later on people discovered, oh, there's some hot spots 441 00:22:48,240 --> 00:22:51,400 Speaker 1: and some cold spots in it. But before all those 442 00:22:51,440 --> 00:22:55,359 Speaker 1: hot spots were measured to great detail, inflationary models, the 443 00:22:55,359 --> 00:22:58,679 Speaker 1: folks working on this kind of cosmology predicted that there 444 00:22:58,720 --> 00:23:01,480 Speaker 1: would be those wiggles. They say, if you measure this really, 445 00:23:01,560 --> 00:23:05,000 Speaker 1: really carefully, you'll find that it's not all the same temperature, 446 00:23:05,040 --> 00:23:08,000 Speaker 1: it's not all the same energy photons. You should see wiggles, 447 00:23:08,040 --> 00:23:10,320 Speaker 1: and you should see wiggles that look just like this. 448 00:23:10,600 --> 00:23:13,399 Speaker 1: And then people develop these satellites and these telescopes to 449 00:23:13,440 --> 00:23:16,360 Speaker 1: look at that light with great precision, and they saw 450 00:23:16,480 --> 00:23:20,159 Speaker 1: exactly those wiggles that inflation predicted, right, And it didn't 451 00:23:20,480 --> 00:23:23,399 Speaker 1: sort of like predict what the wiggles would exactly look like. 452 00:23:23,440 --> 00:23:25,520 Speaker 1: What they predicted like things about it, right, like they 453 00:23:25,560 --> 00:23:28,480 Speaker 1: should be like this curvy and this bumpy and this 454 00:23:28,680 --> 00:23:31,240 Speaker 1: you know at this you know general frequency. Right, It's 455 00:23:31,280 --> 00:23:34,040 Speaker 1: like it predicted what they should the general properties of 456 00:23:34,080 --> 00:23:36,960 Speaker 1: these wiggles. Yeah, they didn't predict like where one wiggle 457 00:23:37,000 --> 00:23:38,760 Speaker 1: would be, like where you would have a hot spot 458 00:23:38,840 --> 00:23:41,240 Speaker 1: and where you would have a cold spot. That's random. 459 00:23:41,400 --> 00:23:43,680 Speaker 1: But what they can do is predict how big should 460 00:23:43,720 --> 00:23:46,520 Speaker 1: those hot spots be, how big should those cold spots 461 00:23:46,560 --> 00:23:48,960 Speaker 1: be like should an entire half of the sky be 462 00:23:49,040 --> 00:23:51,119 Speaker 1: a hot spot? Or should the hot spots be like 463 00:23:51,200 --> 00:23:53,320 Speaker 1: one degree in the sky or point one degree in 464 00:23:53,359 --> 00:23:57,080 Speaker 1: the sky. And very specifically, what inflation predicts is that 465 00:23:57,160 --> 00:24:01,280 Speaker 1: you have quantum fluctuations all throughout inflation. It's not like 466 00:24:01,320 --> 00:24:05,240 Speaker 1: you just had quantum fluctuations before inflation. As the universe 467 00:24:05,440 --> 00:24:09,320 Speaker 1: is inflating, you keep getting quantum fluctuations. And so what 468 00:24:09,400 --> 00:24:12,320 Speaker 1: that means is that you should get wiggles of all sizes. 469 00:24:12,359 --> 00:24:14,320 Speaker 1: You should get wiggles of one degree in wiggles, a 470 00:24:14,400 --> 00:24:16,920 Speaker 1: point one degree in point oh one degrees and all 471 00:24:16,960 --> 00:24:19,040 Speaker 1: those things. So if you look for these, you should 472 00:24:19,040 --> 00:24:21,760 Speaker 1: expect to see all different kinds of wiggles, like basically 473 00:24:21,760 --> 00:24:24,880 Speaker 1: at all different scales. And that's exactly what they see, 474 00:24:25,200 --> 00:24:27,520 Speaker 1: and so that's really exciting. It really suggests that you're 475 00:24:27,520 --> 00:24:32,160 Speaker 1: like you're seeing quantum fluctuations as inflation is happening. It's 476 00:24:32,160 --> 00:24:34,120 Speaker 1: almost like a fractal kind of like you should see 477 00:24:34,160 --> 00:24:37,200 Speaker 1: a certain level of fractalness in the wiggles of the universe. Yeah, 478 00:24:37,240 --> 00:24:39,600 Speaker 1: some people think of it like we're watching time click 479 00:24:39,680 --> 00:24:43,560 Speaker 1: forward as inflation is happening. It's leaving this imprint on 480 00:24:43,600 --> 00:24:46,400 Speaker 1: the universe as it happens. So that was pretty exciting. 481 00:24:46,400 --> 00:24:49,640 Speaker 1: That's pretty convincing that inflation really is a good description 482 00:24:49,680 --> 00:24:52,439 Speaker 1: of what happened, right, right, And so again, inflation is 483 00:24:52,440 --> 00:24:55,479 Speaker 1: this idea that the space itself expanded by this crazy 484 00:24:55,520 --> 00:24:59,360 Speaker 1: amount to everything was crushed together, and then at one 485 00:24:59,400 --> 00:25:01,639 Speaker 1: point in time time it expanded by a factor of 486 00:25:01,720 --> 00:25:04,200 Speaker 1: tent to the thirty in ten to the minus thirty 487 00:25:04,200 --> 00:25:07,119 Speaker 1: two seconds. And that's pretty wild, right, Like that's a 488 00:25:07,280 --> 00:25:11,000 Speaker 1: huge amount of expansion and space and things moving and exploding. 489 00:25:11,119 --> 00:25:13,080 Speaker 1: But there has to I guess the big question is 490 00:25:13,240 --> 00:25:16,720 Speaker 1: like what costed? Like why would the universe suddenly do that? Yeah, 491 00:25:16,800 --> 00:25:19,359 Speaker 1: what we've done so far is just describe what we 492 00:25:19,440 --> 00:25:22,199 Speaker 1: think happened, Like in order to create the universe that 493 00:25:22,240 --> 00:25:24,680 Speaker 1: we're looking at, what sequence of events do you need 494 00:25:24,720 --> 00:25:26,840 Speaker 1: to orchestrate? Now we need to take the next step 495 00:25:26,840 --> 00:25:29,560 Speaker 1: and say, all right, that describes what we think happened. 496 00:25:29,640 --> 00:25:33,000 Speaker 1: But why did it happen? What caused that? Right? And 497 00:25:33,000 --> 00:25:36,359 Speaker 1: this is this eternal chicken an egg? Who ordered that? Yeah? 498 00:25:36,480 --> 00:25:39,560 Speaker 1: Who laid this egg? Right? And when we figure out who, say, 499 00:25:39,600 --> 00:25:41,520 Speaker 1: we're like, all right, well, where did that chicken come from. 500 00:25:41,640 --> 00:25:43,760 Speaker 1: And you know, it might be an eternal question that 501 00:25:43,840 --> 00:25:45,879 Speaker 1: we keep going further and further back, but it's a 502 00:25:45,880 --> 00:25:48,159 Speaker 1: fun question. And this is the process, right. We need 503 00:25:48,200 --> 00:25:50,919 Speaker 1: to nail down what we think happened, and then we 504 00:25:50,960 --> 00:25:53,600 Speaker 1: can look for explanations for what might have caused that 505 00:25:53,960 --> 00:25:55,760 Speaker 1: and nailed down with the parameters of that are, and 506 00:25:55,760 --> 00:25:57,560 Speaker 1: then we can ask, okay, well, you know, does that 507 00:25:57,600 --> 00:25:59,520 Speaker 1: make sense? And what could have caused that? And what 508 00:25:59,720 --> 00:26:02,000 Speaker 1: can editions do you need for that to work? And 509 00:26:02,040 --> 00:26:04,520 Speaker 1: this is the process of science. This is how funny 510 00:26:04,520 --> 00:26:06,720 Speaker 1: little monkeys on a tiny little rock in a corner 511 00:26:06,760 --> 00:26:09,520 Speaker 1: of the universe can peer out at photons landing on 512 00:26:09,560 --> 00:26:12,399 Speaker 1: the surface of their planet and learn things about the 513 00:26:12,480 --> 00:26:15,480 Speaker 1: very origin of the universe. Yeah, just being curious and 514 00:26:15,560 --> 00:26:18,000 Speaker 1: asking questions. Ask a question is sort of like one 515 00:26:18,000 --> 00:26:22,199 Speaker 1: of those annoying kids sometimes and asking the government for 516 00:26:22,240 --> 00:26:25,240 Speaker 1: billions of dollars in fancy eyeballs to use to look 517 00:26:25,280 --> 00:26:27,440 Speaker 1: at this crazy light right, right and to think about 518 00:26:27,480 --> 00:26:29,639 Speaker 1: it doing your naps, that's right. And so to summarize 519 00:26:29,640 --> 00:26:31,960 Speaker 1: what we need the universe to have done is to 520 00:26:32,000 --> 00:26:35,639 Speaker 1: have this crazy period of expansion, right, really really rapid 521 00:26:35,640 --> 00:26:38,320 Speaker 1: expansion and then stop. Right, we don't think that that 522 00:26:38,560 --> 00:26:41,680 Speaker 1: expansion is still going on today. It happened and then 523 00:26:41,680 --> 00:26:45,240 Speaker 1: it stopped happening. And we also need quantum fluctuations before 524 00:26:45,320 --> 00:26:48,640 Speaker 1: inflation and during inflation, and then we needed to all 525 00:26:48,720 --> 00:26:51,800 Speaker 1: somehow turn into the matter that we have today in 526 00:26:51,840 --> 00:26:54,720 Speaker 1: the universe, right, and then also the structure and the 527 00:26:54,840 --> 00:26:57,920 Speaker 1: way it's sort of arranged all that that we see today. 528 00:26:57,960 --> 00:27:00,719 Speaker 1: And so a big idea that might explain this is 529 00:27:00,760 --> 00:27:04,399 Speaker 1: this idea of an infloton, like a special particle that 530 00:27:04,560 --> 00:27:07,879 Speaker 1: caused inflation. Yeah, that's basically the go to strategy for 531 00:27:07,960 --> 00:27:10,840 Speaker 1: particle physicists. Right, It's like, well, we have some process, 532 00:27:10,920 --> 00:27:13,879 Speaker 1: what causes it? A quantum field? Right, that's like the 533 00:27:13,920 --> 00:27:15,680 Speaker 1: only thing we know how to put into the universe. 534 00:27:15,720 --> 00:27:18,399 Speaker 1: And so the game of particle physics is sort of 535 00:27:18,440 --> 00:27:21,440 Speaker 1: like what set of quantum fields can you put together 536 00:27:21,840 --> 00:27:25,320 Speaker 1: that give you the behavior that we see, Like for electrodynamics, 537 00:27:25,560 --> 00:27:28,280 Speaker 1: for you know, electricity and magnetism, we see, Well, if 538 00:27:28,280 --> 00:27:30,879 Speaker 1: we make a photon field and an electron field and 539 00:27:30,880 --> 00:27:32,680 Speaker 1: we have them talk to each other this way, does 540 00:27:32,720 --> 00:27:35,359 Speaker 1: that reproduce what we see in the universe? And so 541 00:27:35,440 --> 00:27:37,600 Speaker 1: now we have a set of requirements, and so people 542 00:27:37,600 --> 00:27:40,480 Speaker 1: have built this field. It's called the infloton field, and 543 00:27:40,480 --> 00:27:43,840 Speaker 1: it's a quantum field that fills the whole universe. And 544 00:27:43,920 --> 00:27:47,119 Speaker 1: like other quantum fields, you know, it can contain energy 545 00:27:47,359 --> 00:27:49,480 Speaker 1: and it can have particles in it. These would be 546 00:27:49,520 --> 00:27:53,159 Speaker 1: Inflaton particles. And they try to construct this field in 547 00:27:53,200 --> 00:27:56,080 Speaker 1: a way that satisfies all those requirements we just mentioned, 548 00:27:56,240 --> 00:27:59,520 Speaker 1: a rapid expansion, a stop to the rapid expansion and 549 00:27:59,560 --> 00:28:04,119 Speaker 1: allowing some quantum fluctuations and then turning into regular matter. Interesting, 550 00:28:04,200 --> 00:28:06,760 Speaker 1: so really you're sort of inserting a new field. That's 551 00:28:06,800 --> 00:28:08,879 Speaker 1: sort of the more sort of proper way to do 552 00:28:08,920 --> 00:28:12,439 Speaker 1: it theoretically. And did you consider just calling it the infield? 553 00:28:15,600 --> 00:28:21,400 Speaker 1: I stopped short at making that idea. That idea comes 554 00:28:21,400 --> 00:28:25,320 Speaker 1: out of left field, or yeah, it's a deep field idea. 555 00:28:25,520 --> 00:28:28,080 Speaker 1: So this field might explain things, and so how does 556 00:28:28,119 --> 00:28:31,359 Speaker 1: this explain inflation? Like how can field do that? And 557 00:28:31,359 --> 00:28:33,960 Speaker 1: why did it stop suddenly? Why isn't it also expanding 558 00:28:34,000 --> 00:28:36,399 Speaker 1: things today? So to understand how a field can do that, 559 00:28:36,440 --> 00:28:38,120 Speaker 1: we need to think about what it means for a 560 00:28:38,200 --> 00:28:41,400 Speaker 1: field to be vacuum, Like when we talk about empty space, 561 00:28:41,520 --> 00:28:44,840 Speaker 1: or the vacuum. What we really mean is that space 562 00:28:44,880 --> 00:28:48,160 Speaker 1: has no particles in it, no like little objects flying 563 00:28:48,160 --> 00:28:51,920 Speaker 1: around carrying kinetic energy, energy of motion. We don't mean 564 00:28:51,920 --> 00:28:54,479 Speaker 1: that it can't have any potential energy, right like we 565 00:28:54,560 --> 00:28:57,920 Speaker 1: think that empty space is filled with quantum fields, and 566 00:28:57,960 --> 00:29:00,480 Speaker 1: those fields do have energy in them. For example, the 567 00:29:00,520 --> 00:29:03,600 Speaker 1: Higgs field is a field that fills all of space, 568 00:29:03,720 --> 00:29:06,960 Speaker 1: but at its lowest level, as most relaxed point, it 569 00:29:07,040 --> 00:29:10,440 Speaker 1: still has energy in it that's potential energy. And so 570 00:29:10,640 --> 00:29:13,600 Speaker 1: people think that maybe the in phloton field was some 571 00:29:13,720 --> 00:29:16,480 Speaker 1: field that started out with a lot of potential energy, 572 00:29:16,640 --> 00:29:19,800 Speaker 1: no matter at all, no particles, just a lot of 573 00:29:19,880 --> 00:29:23,840 Speaker 1: potential energy. An interesting thing about a quantum field that 574 00:29:23,920 --> 00:29:28,480 Speaker 1: has just potential energy is that it causes rapid expansion 575 00:29:28,640 --> 00:29:31,360 Speaker 1: of space time. And this is an idea we've run 576 00:29:31,400 --> 00:29:34,560 Speaker 1: into before when we've talked about dark energy. One way 577 00:29:34,560 --> 00:29:37,480 Speaker 1: we try to explain why the universe seems to be 578 00:29:37,560 --> 00:29:42,320 Speaker 1: accelerating its expansion today is this idea of a cosmological constant, 579 00:29:42,600 --> 00:29:45,280 Speaker 1: which is just like a potential energy that fills all 580 00:29:45,360 --> 00:29:47,760 Speaker 1: of space. If you put that into the equations of 581 00:29:47,800 --> 00:29:52,320 Speaker 1: general relativity, it creates this negative pressure which expands all 582 00:29:52,360 --> 00:29:55,760 Speaker 1: of space. And so just like adding a cosmological constant 583 00:29:55,800 --> 00:29:59,200 Speaker 1: sort of makes the universe accelerate its expansion. Now, if 584 00:29:59,240 --> 00:30:02,040 Speaker 1: you create a quantum field very early in the universe 585 00:30:02,120 --> 00:30:06,200 Speaker 1: with a lot of potential energy, it has the same effect. Well, 586 00:30:06,240 --> 00:30:08,080 Speaker 1: I guess let me step back a little bit. So 587 00:30:08,120 --> 00:30:10,840 Speaker 1: there's the idea that maybe that the universe is filled 588 00:30:10,840 --> 00:30:14,320 Speaker 1: with fields like the electron field, the court fields, and 589 00:30:14,360 --> 00:30:17,000 Speaker 1: the all the particles have their own fields, and these 590 00:30:17,040 --> 00:30:19,200 Speaker 1: are like sort of like the things that just perme 591 00:30:19,240 --> 00:30:21,640 Speaker 1: It's sort of like a fog that fills every every 592 00:30:21,640 --> 00:30:24,000 Speaker 1: bit of space in the universe. And you're saying that 593 00:30:24,160 --> 00:30:27,760 Speaker 1: just having a field with energy in it expands space. 594 00:30:28,120 --> 00:30:31,200 Speaker 1: That's right. Every quantum field has to have energy in it. 595 00:30:31,240 --> 00:30:34,160 Speaker 1: That's called this zero point energy, and we've talked about 596 00:30:34,160 --> 00:30:36,680 Speaker 1: it in the podcast before, like it manifests itself as 597 00:30:36,720 --> 00:30:40,080 Speaker 1: the Casimir effect and other areas. And so we think 598 00:30:40,120 --> 00:30:43,160 Speaker 1: that every quantum field has a minimum energy in it, 599 00:30:43,360 --> 00:30:46,280 Speaker 1: and any field with energy this is always expanding space. 600 00:30:46,440 --> 00:30:50,479 Speaker 1: So why is that? Why does space itself expand when 601 00:30:50,560 --> 00:30:53,280 Speaker 1: that the field has energy? Space itself will expand when 602 00:30:53,280 --> 00:30:55,920 Speaker 1: a field has potential energy, Right when it's in the 603 00:30:56,000 --> 00:30:58,360 Speaker 1: vacuum state when it has any sort of potential energy, 604 00:30:58,560 --> 00:31:01,080 Speaker 1: because that's the way it enters into the equations for 605 00:31:01,200 --> 00:31:04,840 Speaker 1: general relativity. General relativity is a way to understand the 606 00:31:04,920 --> 00:31:08,320 Speaker 1: effect of matter and energy on space, and mostly it's 607 00:31:08,320 --> 00:31:11,120 Speaker 1: pretty simple, like you put a blob of mass into space, 608 00:31:11,240 --> 00:31:13,880 Speaker 1: it will curve space. That makes sort of sense because 609 00:31:13,920 --> 00:31:16,200 Speaker 1: you can imagine that it changes like the way things 610 00:31:16,240 --> 00:31:19,520 Speaker 1: fly and why photons get bent around the Sun, etcetera. 611 00:31:19,680 --> 00:31:21,440 Speaker 1: And that's also true for energy. You put a lot 612 00:31:21,440 --> 00:31:23,840 Speaker 1: of energy into space, it will curve it. But there 613 00:31:23,880 --> 00:31:26,400 Speaker 1: also are other effects that go beyond sort of like 614 00:31:26,440 --> 00:31:29,440 Speaker 1: the simple replication of Newton's Gravity can also do other 615 00:31:29,600 --> 00:31:32,320 Speaker 1: weird things, it turns out, and one of those weird 616 00:31:32,360 --> 00:31:35,560 Speaker 1: things is that if you have potential energy all throughout space, 617 00:31:35,840 --> 00:31:39,280 Speaker 1: it creates this negative pressure. And negative pressure is really 618 00:31:39,320 --> 00:31:43,440 Speaker 1: weird because it's like repulsive gravity. We're used to gravity 619 00:31:43,520 --> 00:31:46,560 Speaker 1: only attracting things like you are attracted to the Earth 620 00:31:46,600 --> 00:31:49,440 Speaker 1: and the Earth is attracted to the Sun. Well, Einstein's 621 00:31:49,440 --> 00:31:52,840 Speaker 1: general relativity tells us that gravity comes from this distortion 622 00:31:52,880 --> 00:31:55,440 Speaker 1: of space and time, and then it's sensitive not just 623 00:31:55,520 --> 00:31:59,160 Speaker 1: to mass, but also to potential energy, but potential energy 624 00:31:59,200 --> 00:32:02,200 Speaker 1: does something really really weird, that sort of unfamiliar and 625 00:32:02,240 --> 00:32:05,280 Speaker 1: hard to grapple with, which is that it creates this repulsion, 626 00:32:05,640 --> 00:32:10,120 Speaker 1: this negative pressure, which expands space itself. And you might ask, well, look, 627 00:32:10,240 --> 00:32:12,240 Speaker 1: why does it do that? And you know, I don't 628 00:32:12,240 --> 00:32:14,120 Speaker 1: have a great clear answer for you. It's just sort 629 00:32:14,120 --> 00:32:16,840 Speaker 1: of like that's the structure the equations in general relativity, 630 00:32:16,880 --> 00:32:20,360 Speaker 1: which seem to describe what we see. And Einstein, when 631 00:32:20,360 --> 00:32:22,240 Speaker 1: he first saw this in his equation, he thought, well, 632 00:32:22,280 --> 00:32:24,960 Speaker 1: that's nonsense. Let's just ignore that, because there's no way 633 00:32:25,040 --> 00:32:28,040 Speaker 1: the universe is doing that, right, And so he overlooked 634 00:32:28,040 --> 00:32:32,240 Speaker 1: this idea of a cosmological constant any sort of repulsive gravity, 635 00:32:32,640 --> 00:32:35,520 Speaker 1: And now we sort of needed to describe the universe 636 00:32:35,520 --> 00:32:38,560 Speaker 1: that we see. We don't exactly know why that happens, 637 00:32:38,600 --> 00:32:40,200 Speaker 1: but it's just sort of like the shape of the 638 00:32:40,240 --> 00:32:43,240 Speaker 1: equations that we can use to describe what we are seeing. 639 00:32:43,480 --> 00:32:45,880 Speaker 1: M I see. So it's sort of like fields of 640 00:32:45,960 --> 00:32:48,840 Speaker 1: energy and that puts pressure on the universe to make 641 00:32:48,840 --> 00:32:51,440 Speaker 1: it expand, sort of like air inside of a balloon. Maybe, 642 00:32:51,480 --> 00:32:53,120 Speaker 1: like if you have a lot of pressure a lot 643 00:32:53,120 --> 00:32:55,880 Speaker 1: of energy inside of the balloon that those tend to 644 00:32:55,920 --> 00:32:58,280 Speaker 1: want to expand the space it's in. Right, Yeah, that's 645 00:32:58,280 --> 00:33:00,200 Speaker 1: a fine way to think about it. And so if 646 00:33:00,200 --> 00:33:03,800 Speaker 1: you want to describe the universe as expanding very very rapidly, 647 00:33:04,200 --> 00:33:06,240 Speaker 1: you need to have a field that has a huge 648 00:33:06,280 --> 00:33:08,959 Speaker 1: amount of potential energy. And so this can be like 649 00:33:09,040 --> 00:33:11,959 Speaker 1: a vacuum. We're talking about no particles, but still a 650 00:33:12,000 --> 00:33:14,760 Speaker 1: field with a lot of energy. And sometimes we call 651 00:33:14,840 --> 00:33:17,520 Speaker 1: this in particle physics, we call this a false vacuum 652 00:33:17,560 --> 00:33:20,440 Speaker 1: because it's not like energy equal zero. We talked about 653 00:33:20,440 --> 00:33:22,640 Speaker 1: this before in terms of the Higgs field. Higgs field 654 00:33:22,760 --> 00:33:25,600 Speaker 1: is the field that has energy in it, some vacuum 655 00:33:25,640 --> 00:33:28,720 Speaker 1: expectation value. It's it's relaxed. It's sort of like at 656 00:33:28,760 --> 00:33:30,840 Speaker 1: its lowest state, but that lowest state is not at 657 00:33:30,960 --> 00:33:34,160 Speaker 1: zero energy. And that's why all the particles have mass, 658 00:33:34,160 --> 00:33:36,600 Speaker 1: because they interact with this field which has this energy, 659 00:33:36,960 --> 00:33:38,840 Speaker 1: and that's where the energy for the mass of all 660 00:33:38,880 --> 00:33:40,920 Speaker 1: the particles comes from. So it seems like, you know, 661 00:33:41,000 --> 00:33:43,080 Speaker 1: we have all these fields to describe all these particles, 662 00:33:43,120 --> 00:33:45,880 Speaker 1: and they're all trying to make space bigger all the time. 663 00:33:46,120 --> 00:33:48,800 Speaker 1: But we're now we're trying to explain this particular period 664 00:33:48,840 --> 00:33:51,400 Speaker 1: in the in the universe's history where it thinks inflated 665 00:33:51,440 --> 00:33:54,600 Speaker 1: exploded expand its super fast and the super joid amount 666 00:33:54,600 --> 00:33:56,800 Speaker 1: of time. And so maybe the theory is that maybe 667 00:33:56,800 --> 00:33:59,120 Speaker 1: there was a field with a huge amount of energy 668 00:33:59,200 --> 00:34:02,720 Speaker 1: at that point, then that caused that huge expansion exactly. 669 00:34:02,800 --> 00:34:05,200 Speaker 1: So when this field has a huge amount of potential energy, 670 00:34:05,400 --> 00:34:08,760 Speaker 1: you get rapid expansion of space and time. But remember 671 00:34:08,760 --> 00:34:11,400 Speaker 1: we need not just rapid expansion of space time, we 672 00:34:11,440 --> 00:34:13,560 Speaker 1: also need that to stop, right, because we don't think 673 00:34:13,640 --> 00:34:16,920 Speaker 1: inflation is still happening today. So the idea is that 674 00:34:17,000 --> 00:34:20,080 Speaker 1: instead of this potential energy being stable, you know, instead 675 00:34:20,080 --> 00:34:21,680 Speaker 1: of this being like a field that's sort of like 676 00:34:22,000 --> 00:34:25,319 Speaker 1: stuck in a well, that it's sort of like unstable, 677 00:34:25,440 --> 00:34:27,200 Speaker 1: that it's like a boulder the top of a hill, 678 00:34:27,239 --> 00:34:29,920 Speaker 1: and that hills like a little bit slanted. So eventually 679 00:34:30,160 --> 00:34:33,680 Speaker 1: the universe rolls down from the top of this high 680 00:34:33,719 --> 00:34:37,160 Speaker 1: potential energy into a state with lower potential energy. And 681 00:34:37,239 --> 00:34:39,799 Speaker 1: just like when a boulder rolls down a hill, it 682 00:34:39,960 --> 00:34:43,280 Speaker 1: turns some of that gravitational potential energy into the energy 683 00:34:43,360 --> 00:34:45,600 Speaker 1: of its motion, right, And so in this case, what 684 00:34:45,640 --> 00:34:48,520 Speaker 1: would happen is that potential energy in that field, that 685 00:34:48,560 --> 00:34:51,880 Speaker 1: infloton field, which was driving the expansion of the universe. 686 00:34:52,120 --> 00:34:55,920 Speaker 1: Now that potential energy decreases, so the universe's expansion stops 687 00:34:56,080 --> 00:34:58,480 Speaker 1: and that energy has to go somewhere, So it creates 688 00:34:58,760 --> 00:35:01,480 Speaker 1: inflot on part of goals. So you go from a 689 00:35:01,560 --> 00:35:04,160 Speaker 1: vacuum with a lot of potential energy to something which 690 00:35:04,200 --> 00:35:06,480 Speaker 1: is no longer vacuum because you have all this energy 691 00:35:06,480 --> 00:35:09,320 Speaker 1: and all these infloton particles which are whizzing through space 692 00:35:09,800 --> 00:35:12,040 Speaker 1: right right. Well, I'm not sure a bolder is helping 693 00:35:12,040 --> 00:35:14,399 Speaker 1: me understand this as much, but I think what you're 694 00:35:14,400 --> 00:35:17,000 Speaker 1: saying is that it had all this energy, it caused 695 00:35:17,000 --> 00:35:19,719 Speaker 1: the universe to inflate super rapidly, and then it was 696 00:35:19,760 --> 00:35:23,360 Speaker 1: basically like spent, right Like it just diluted. Once space 697 00:35:23,400 --> 00:35:26,680 Speaker 1: expanded that fast, it just basically all that energy went away, 698 00:35:26,840 --> 00:35:28,640 Speaker 1: sort of like maybe a balloon once to pop it 699 00:35:28,800 --> 00:35:31,600 Speaker 1: the pressure so it dissipates, But the energy doesn't go away. 700 00:35:31,600 --> 00:35:34,879 Speaker 1: It just turns into infloton particles. It goes from one 701 00:35:34,920 --> 00:35:37,719 Speaker 1: kind of energy into another kind of energy. It goes 702 00:35:37,760 --> 00:35:41,520 Speaker 1: from high potential energy into energy of these particles. Why 703 00:35:41,520 --> 00:35:44,160 Speaker 1: don't the particles cause inflation? Though, because those particles are 704 00:35:44,200 --> 00:35:47,080 Speaker 1: now mass and energy, which has a different effect on 705 00:35:47,120 --> 00:35:49,359 Speaker 1: the shape of the universe. You only get that kind 706 00:35:49,400 --> 00:35:52,279 Speaker 1: of rapid inflation when you have high potential energy. Now, 707 00:35:52,320 --> 00:35:54,720 Speaker 1: when you have a lot of mass, right, mass itself 708 00:35:54,760 --> 00:35:58,320 Speaker 1: doesn't cause accelerated expansion of the universe. Only potential energy 709 00:35:58,360 --> 00:36:00,319 Speaker 1: does that. Sort of like the energy went from one 710 00:36:00,360 --> 00:36:03,120 Speaker 1: field to another field, right, yeah, where the field itself change. 711 00:36:03,160 --> 00:36:04,600 Speaker 1: It used to be that the field had a lot 712 00:36:04,600 --> 00:36:06,640 Speaker 1: of potential energy, and now it doesn't have a lot 713 00:36:06,680 --> 00:36:10,359 Speaker 1: of potential energy, and so that energy goes into something else. 714 00:36:10,680 --> 00:36:12,239 Speaker 1: Just like that boulder. You know, it had a lot 715 00:36:12,280 --> 00:36:14,359 Speaker 1: of potential energy when it's sitting up on the top 716 00:36:14,400 --> 00:36:16,319 Speaker 1: of a hill, and then when it falls off the hill, 717 00:36:16,480 --> 00:36:18,080 Speaker 1: that energy is still there, but now it's like the 718 00:36:18,160 --> 00:36:20,680 Speaker 1: energy of the motion of the boulder. So you can 719 00:36:20,719 --> 00:36:22,839 Speaker 1: turn energy from one kind of thing into another kind 720 00:36:22,840 --> 00:36:24,840 Speaker 1: of thing. Like you can take this potential energy and 721 00:36:24,880 --> 00:36:27,439 Speaker 1: create particles out of it. So you went from this 722 00:36:27,760 --> 00:36:30,840 Speaker 1: state of high potential energy, which is inflating the universe, 723 00:36:31,160 --> 00:36:34,160 Speaker 1: into a state of lower potential energy. Now inflation has stopped, 724 00:36:34,200 --> 00:36:36,440 Speaker 1: the expansion has stopped, and you're filled with all these 725 00:36:36,480 --> 00:36:39,600 Speaker 1: crazy inflaton particles. But also, I mean, I imagine some 726 00:36:39,640 --> 00:36:41,520 Speaker 1: of it has to do with the dilution of it, right, 727 00:36:41,560 --> 00:36:45,320 Speaker 1: because space expanded, now suddenly it's sort of less powerful too, 728 00:36:45,560 --> 00:36:48,319 Speaker 1: whatever energy was there. Yeah, although it's really tricky to 729 00:36:48,360 --> 00:36:51,280 Speaker 1: think about the conservation of energy in these terms. Remember 730 00:36:51,280 --> 00:36:53,920 Speaker 1: we had a whole podcast about whether energy is conserved 731 00:36:53,960 --> 00:36:57,759 Speaker 1: and it's not actually conserved when space is expanding, because 732 00:36:57,800 --> 00:37:00,279 Speaker 1: sometimes more energy is being created. Right, as you create 733 00:37:00,320 --> 00:37:02,960 Speaker 1: more space, you also create more energy. But you're right 734 00:37:03,000 --> 00:37:05,319 Speaker 1: that the energy is getting diluted because we went from 735 00:37:05,440 --> 00:37:08,319 Speaker 1: very hot, dense universe to one that's not very hot 736 00:37:08,360 --> 00:37:12,319 Speaker 1: and not very dense. I see, all right, Well that 737 00:37:12,440 --> 00:37:15,040 Speaker 1: might be then where all of the energy from inflation 738 00:37:15,160 --> 00:37:18,760 Speaker 1: went to and why the universe stopped expanding so quickly. 739 00:37:19,000 --> 00:37:21,399 Speaker 1: So it might be this imfloton. And so let's get 740 00:37:21,440 --> 00:37:24,799 Speaker 1: into more of this particle and whether or not it's 741 00:37:24,840 --> 00:37:27,640 Speaker 1: real and whether we've seen it. But first let's take 742 00:37:27,680 --> 00:37:42,720 Speaker 1: another quick break. All right, Daniel, we are inflating people's 743 00:37:42,760 --> 00:37:46,680 Speaker 1: minds here today talking about inflation and the inflaton, which 744 00:37:46,760 --> 00:37:49,640 Speaker 1: might explain the rapid expansion of the universe during the 745 00:37:49,680 --> 00:37:51,520 Speaker 1: Big Bang. So I guess the question is we have 746 00:37:51,560 --> 00:37:54,440 Speaker 1: this theory of the infloton and the inflaton field, is 747 00:37:54,480 --> 00:37:56,319 Speaker 1: it real, like, have we seen it? Do we have 748 00:37:56,440 --> 00:37:59,680 Speaker 1: confirmation that it exists. It's a great question and it's 749 00:37:59,719 --> 00:38:02,479 Speaker 1: one that we are still struggling with. You know, first 750 00:38:02,480 --> 00:38:04,319 Speaker 1: you come up with these ideas and then you think 751 00:38:04,360 --> 00:38:07,439 Speaker 1: about their consequences. Then you think about ways to test them. 752 00:38:07,880 --> 00:38:11,200 Speaker 1: And we have some promising ways to maybe explore this 753 00:38:11,520 --> 00:38:15,359 Speaker 1: because we can think about what happened to those infloton particles, right, 754 00:38:15,400 --> 00:38:19,280 Speaker 1: the universe expanded, all that potential energy turned into infloton particles, 755 00:38:19,520 --> 00:38:22,600 Speaker 1: but those infloton particles are not still around today. The 756 00:38:22,680 --> 00:38:25,520 Speaker 1: universe is not filled with infloton particles. We think what 757 00:38:25,600 --> 00:38:29,120 Speaker 1: happened is that those particles then turned into normal matter, 758 00:38:29,280 --> 00:38:31,960 Speaker 1: you know, quarks and electrons and all kinds of stuff, 759 00:38:31,960 --> 00:38:34,640 Speaker 1: which then led to the universe we see today. And 760 00:38:34,680 --> 00:38:37,040 Speaker 1: so we might be able to trace back and say, well, 761 00:38:37,239 --> 00:38:39,480 Speaker 1: can we see evidence in sort of the patterns of 762 00:38:39,520 --> 00:38:42,920 Speaker 1: those corks and those electrons that support that they came 763 00:38:43,040 --> 00:38:46,160 Speaker 1: from in photons, that their history is sort of in photons? 764 00:38:47,560 --> 00:38:50,760 Speaker 1: WHOA wait, are you saying that a lot or most 765 00:38:50,880 --> 00:38:52,560 Speaker 1: or some of the matter that we see till they 766 00:38:52,600 --> 00:38:55,960 Speaker 1: came from this energy that exploded the universe directly. If 767 00:38:55,960 --> 00:38:57,799 Speaker 1: this theory is correct, it would be all of it, 768 00:38:57,960 --> 00:39:00,959 Speaker 1: every little piece of matter which exists to day, came 769 00:39:01,040 --> 00:39:04,799 Speaker 1: from an infloton, Every cork, every electron, every timing thing 770 00:39:04,840 --> 00:39:07,279 Speaker 1: out there used to be an infloton particle, used to 771 00:39:07,280 --> 00:39:10,360 Speaker 1: be the whole universe just was this. All it was 772 00:39:10,360 --> 00:39:13,439 Speaker 1: was the infhoton field and infloton particles, and then all 773 00:39:13,480 --> 00:39:17,200 Speaker 1: of those turned into the matter that makes us up right, 774 00:39:17,200 --> 00:39:19,239 Speaker 1: But through these other fields, are you saying those other 775 00:39:19,320 --> 00:39:22,880 Speaker 1: fields didn't exist or they didn't have energy before. How 776 00:39:22,920 --> 00:39:24,840 Speaker 1: does this relate to the other quantum fields that we 777 00:39:24,880 --> 00:39:26,640 Speaker 1: see today. That's a great question. And we have to 778 00:39:26,680 --> 00:39:30,760 Speaker 1: remember that our picture of these fields electrons and quarks 779 00:39:30,760 --> 00:39:33,880 Speaker 1: and whatever is something we've only really ever seen when 780 00:39:33,920 --> 00:39:37,040 Speaker 1: the universe is cold and old, and so it's like 781 00:39:37,120 --> 00:39:40,040 Speaker 1: a useful description of how things work. We don't think 782 00:39:40,080 --> 00:39:42,080 Speaker 1: it's fundamental. We don't think that these this is like 783 00:39:42,320 --> 00:39:44,960 Speaker 1: the basic description of true reality is just sort of 784 00:39:45,000 --> 00:39:47,600 Speaker 1: like the physics that works today. It's sort of like 785 00:39:47,640 --> 00:39:50,640 Speaker 1: if you wanted to describe the physics of fluids, you 786 00:39:50,680 --> 00:39:53,360 Speaker 1: know how do fluids flow. Well, that works when fluids 787 00:39:53,360 --> 00:39:55,880 Speaker 1: are a certain temperature. When fluids get really really hot, 788 00:39:55,920 --> 00:39:57,719 Speaker 1: and all those equations go out the window, and when 789 00:39:57,760 --> 00:40:00,600 Speaker 1: fluids get really really cold, those equations go out the window. 790 00:40:01,200 --> 00:40:04,000 Speaker 1: So one idea is not that sort of the in 791 00:40:04,040 --> 00:40:06,800 Speaker 1: photon fields and these fields, the cork fields, and the 792 00:40:06,800 --> 00:40:09,400 Speaker 1: electron fields all exist at the same time, but that 793 00:40:09,719 --> 00:40:12,759 Speaker 1: when the universe is hot and dense and crazy, the 794 00:40:12,800 --> 00:40:15,440 Speaker 1: in photon field is the way to describe the universe. 795 00:40:15,560 --> 00:40:18,080 Speaker 1: And then later when it gets colder, a picture of 796 00:40:18,120 --> 00:40:20,360 Speaker 1: the same universe is to use these fields that we 797 00:40:20,400 --> 00:40:22,759 Speaker 1: have today. None of these fields are like a deep, 798 00:40:22,800 --> 00:40:25,239 Speaker 1: fundamental true story. They're just sort of like an effective 799 00:40:25,320 --> 00:40:29,120 Speaker 1: mathematical story we tell about today's situation. It's like the 800 00:40:29,200 --> 00:40:32,719 Speaker 1: story changes kind of first it had these characters, and 801 00:40:32,760 --> 00:40:34,960 Speaker 1: then and then these and then it had these other 802 00:40:35,040 --> 00:40:37,399 Speaker 1: characters in it. Yeah, And physicists talk about this as 803 00:40:37,440 --> 00:40:39,920 Speaker 1: a phase change for a reason, right, Because when phases 804 00:40:39,960 --> 00:40:43,239 Speaker 1: of matter change, different rules seem to come into play. Right. 805 00:40:43,280 --> 00:40:46,440 Speaker 1: There's different rules about how crystals work and how plasmas 806 00:40:46,480 --> 00:40:48,759 Speaker 1: work and how fluids work for a reason. And so 807 00:40:48,800 --> 00:40:50,920 Speaker 1: because we don't have a fundamental theory of the universe. 808 00:40:51,000 --> 00:40:53,160 Speaker 1: We can just describe it in terms of different phases. 809 00:40:53,200 --> 00:40:55,920 Speaker 1: We think the universe at a very hot, dense temperature 810 00:40:55,920 --> 00:40:58,600 Speaker 1: in the bay beginning is described by different physics, and 811 00:40:58,600 --> 00:41:01,680 Speaker 1: that's the in ploton field. The universe today is described 812 00:41:01,760 --> 00:41:04,960 Speaker 1: by the physics that we have been developing. Interesting, you're 813 00:41:05,000 --> 00:41:06,719 Speaker 1: saying that sort of at the very at the very 814 00:41:06,760 --> 00:41:09,320 Speaker 1: beginning of the universe, when it expanded and it was 815 00:41:09,360 --> 00:41:11,720 Speaker 1: super hot and dance and it was expanding super fast, 816 00:41:11,760 --> 00:41:14,280 Speaker 1: then the star of the show was this infloton field, 817 00:41:14,320 --> 00:41:17,680 Speaker 1: and in ploton particles were flying all around, and then 818 00:41:17,719 --> 00:41:19,719 Speaker 1: the story changed and then those became sort of what 819 00:41:19,760 --> 00:41:22,160 Speaker 1: we see today. Yeah, exactly, like the universe sort of 820 00:41:22,320 --> 00:41:25,759 Speaker 1: cooled down and crystallized and new stuff happened, and that 821 00:41:25,800 --> 00:41:28,600 Speaker 1: stuff is well described by having electrons and quirks and 822 00:41:28,640 --> 00:41:30,279 Speaker 1: all that kind of stuff. You were saying, we're living 823 00:41:30,280 --> 00:41:33,200 Speaker 1: in the reboot of the universe with a new cast. Yeah, 824 00:41:33,239 --> 00:41:35,360 Speaker 1: we're living in the ice ages. Man. You know, the 825 00:41:35,400 --> 00:41:37,960 Speaker 1: most dramatic thing happened, you know, in Act one, and 826 00:41:38,000 --> 00:41:40,720 Speaker 1: we're in like Act fourteen billion, and everything is cold 827 00:41:41,040 --> 00:41:43,680 Speaker 1: and desolate, except that we don't know this might go 828 00:41:43,719 --> 00:41:47,560 Speaker 1: into syndication for another unred trillion seasons. That's right, we 829 00:41:47,600 --> 00:41:50,080 Speaker 1: should be so lucky as to have fourteen billion seasons. 830 00:41:51,000 --> 00:41:52,960 Speaker 1: So tell me about this inflaton, I guess, is it 831 00:41:53,200 --> 00:41:55,640 Speaker 1: just like any other particle? Could you make things out 832 00:41:55,640 --> 00:41:59,080 Speaker 1: of this infloton? Like was there imfloton matter at the 833 00:41:59,120 --> 00:42:01,359 Speaker 1: beginning of the universe during the Big Bang? So this 834 00:42:01,440 --> 00:42:03,840 Speaker 1: is the wild West of theoretical physics. There's lots of 835 00:42:03,840 --> 00:42:06,400 Speaker 1: different ideas for these in photons, what they could look like, 836 00:42:06,480 --> 00:42:09,759 Speaker 1: how they work, what mass they even have, whether their 837 00:42:09,840 --> 00:42:12,920 Speaker 1: mass really even makes sense, because in some sense, the 838 00:42:12,960 --> 00:42:15,879 Speaker 1: mass of a particle depends on how it moves, which 839 00:42:15,920 --> 00:42:19,000 Speaker 1: depends on the potential energy. And here we're talking about 840 00:42:19,000 --> 00:42:21,799 Speaker 1: potential energy that's changing, and so like you know, these 841 00:42:21,840 --> 00:42:25,040 Speaker 1: in photon particles might have variable mass, or they might 842 00:42:25,080 --> 00:42:28,759 Speaker 1: be ridiculously massive, you know, like trillions of times the 843 00:42:28,800 --> 00:42:31,319 Speaker 1: mass of the proton, or they could be as light 844 00:42:31,360 --> 00:42:34,560 Speaker 1: as the Higgs boson. So there's basically every flavor of 845 00:42:34,680 --> 00:42:37,040 Speaker 1: in photon theory out there, depending on the one that 846 00:42:37,120 --> 00:42:40,320 Speaker 1: you like. There's inflation in the number of theories about 847 00:42:40,320 --> 00:42:44,239 Speaker 1: the inton. But that's what happened in physics. Right, there's 848 00:42:44,239 --> 00:42:46,640 Speaker 1: a big problem. Nobody knows what to do. Somebody creates 849 00:42:46,640 --> 00:42:49,239 Speaker 1: a sort of new class of idea and all of 850 00:42:49,320 --> 00:42:51,440 Speaker 1: a sudden it opens up the door at to lots 851 00:42:51,440 --> 00:42:53,880 Speaker 1: more creativity. People say, oh, maybe it's this. Maybe it's like, oh, 852 00:42:54,000 --> 00:42:55,680 Speaker 1: look what I did with this. If I just tweaked 853 00:42:55,719 --> 00:42:57,759 Speaker 1: this over here, I get something totally different which has 854 00:42:57,800 --> 00:43:00,320 Speaker 1: these exciting properties. So that's sort of like a gold 855 00:43:00,360 --> 00:43:02,840 Speaker 1: rush when it comes to theoretical physics, and this is 856 00:43:02,880 --> 00:43:05,440 Speaker 1: now a huge area of research. But one thing that 857 00:43:05,480 --> 00:43:08,040 Speaker 1: people are working on is trying to imagine if we 858 00:43:08,080 --> 00:43:11,080 Speaker 1: can see evidence for these particles if they left an 859 00:43:11,120 --> 00:43:14,840 Speaker 1: imprint on the universe today. Interesting, well, I guess couldn't 860 00:43:14,880 --> 00:43:18,680 Speaker 1: we recreate some of these conditions, Like when you're smashing particles, 861 00:43:18,719 --> 00:43:22,320 Speaker 1: don't you create you know, the matter and energy density 862 00:43:22,360 --> 00:43:24,720 Speaker 1: to the point where you might see an infloton or something. 863 00:43:24,840 --> 00:43:27,239 Speaker 1: That's exactly the goal, And that is why we do 864 00:43:27,320 --> 00:43:30,000 Speaker 1: collider physics, because we want to probe the universe not 865 00:43:30,080 --> 00:43:32,280 Speaker 1: just at the cold, boring temperature that it is today, 866 00:43:32,400 --> 00:43:34,719 Speaker 1: but as far back as we can go. But you know, 867 00:43:34,719 --> 00:43:37,040 Speaker 1: our colliders are limited, and so we can create things 868 00:43:37,080 --> 00:43:39,400 Speaker 1: that are sort of warm compared to a typical environment, 869 00:43:39,400 --> 00:43:42,640 Speaker 1: but we can't get anywhere near the energies necessary to 870 00:43:42,680 --> 00:43:45,560 Speaker 1: create an infloton particle unless we build something like the 871 00:43:45,600 --> 00:43:48,719 Speaker 1: size of the galaxy. Then again, we don't really know 872 00:43:49,080 --> 00:43:50,880 Speaker 1: the mass of this thing, and we don't really know 873 00:43:50,920 --> 00:43:52,920 Speaker 1: what the rules are, so it could also just be 874 00:43:53,000 --> 00:43:55,799 Speaker 1: around the corner we build a collider twice as big 875 00:43:55,840 --> 00:43:58,560 Speaker 1: as we have now, maybe we make infloton particles. We 876 00:43:58,600 --> 00:44:01,320 Speaker 1: don't know, Like most people suspect that it is somewhere 877 00:44:01,360 --> 00:44:03,759 Speaker 1: up near the plank mass, and so you'd need some 878 00:44:03,960 --> 00:44:08,480 Speaker 1: ridunculously large particle accelerator to ever recreate these conditions. I 879 00:44:08,520 --> 00:44:11,360 Speaker 1: guess you know that the imploton existed when the universe 880 00:44:11,440 --> 00:44:14,600 Speaker 1: was tend to the negative thirty times smaller. That they 881 00:44:14,640 --> 00:44:16,640 Speaker 1: might have existed right up until the very end of 882 00:44:16,680 --> 00:44:18,839 Speaker 1: that range, right, in which case we might be right 883 00:44:18,960 --> 00:44:20,920 Speaker 1: over the range where you could see them. Yeah, Or 884 00:44:20,960 --> 00:44:23,480 Speaker 1: you might need an accelerator that's tended the thirty times 885 00:44:23,480 --> 00:44:25,759 Speaker 1: bigger than hours in order to see it, which might 886 00:44:25,760 --> 00:44:29,799 Speaker 1: cost tend to the times exactly. So we might need 887 00:44:29,840 --> 00:44:32,759 Speaker 1: to wait for financial inflation of research budgets before we 888 00:44:32,760 --> 00:44:35,360 Speaker 1: can probe that. So then could we ever test whether 889 00:44:35,400 --> 00:44:37,960 Speaker 1: this imfloton exists or do we have to rely on 890 00:44:38,160 --> 00:44:40,919 Speaker 1: theoretical work. We can test to see if it left 891 00:44:40,920 --> 00:44:44,399 Speaker 1: an imprint on the universe, because you know, the way 892 00:44:44,440 --> 00:44:46,600 Speaker 1: to see whether something happened a long time ago is 893 00:44:46,640 --> 00:44:49,160 Speaker 1: just to look for clues. If you can't recreate the events, 894 00:44:49,440 --> 00:44:51,440 Speaker 1: you look to see if it left a mark on 895 00:44:51,520 --> 00:44:54,720 Speaker 1: the universe. And one of those marks might be, for example, 896 00:44:54,920 --> 00:44:58,759 Speaker 1: gravitational waves. You know, any time you have expansion of 897 00:44:58,840 --> 00:45:02,600 Speaker 1: space that way, you're going to create ripples in space itself. 898 00:45:03,000 --> 00:45:06,040 Speaker 1: So there are theories about the gravitational waves that were 899 00:45:06,120 --> 00:45:10,080 Speaker 1: left by inflation, and so we listen really really carefully 900 00:45:10,120 --> 00:45:12,680 Speaker 1: for these gravitational waves. We might be able to detect 901 00:45:12,880 --> 00:45:15,560 Speaker 1: those that come from the very early universe. And we 902 00:45:15,600 --> 00:45:19,680 Speaker 1: had an episode about this cosmic gravitational background and whether 903 00:45:19,840 --> 00:45:22,920 Speaker 1: advanced detectors could detect it. And so there are promising 904 00:45:23,000 --> 00:45:26,120 Speaker 1: areas of research. They're interesting, like the echoes of the 905 00:45:26,160 --> 00:45:29,879 Speaker 1: Big Bang in space itself, in space itself. So far, 906 00:45:29,920 --> 00:45:33,240 Speaker 1: our detectors are only capable of hearing like extremely loud 907 00:45:33,280 --> 00:45:35,919 Speaker 1: shouts and screams in space, you know, when huge black 908 00:45:35,960 --> 00:45:38,800 Speaker 1: holes combined with each other. These would be more like whispers, 909 00:45:38,920 --> 00:45:41,960 Speaker 1: much much quieter and also hard at a pinpoint. All right, 910 00:45:42,000 --> 00:45:44,960 Speaker 1: They're not like an individual source, and so it takes 911 00:45:45,000 --> 00:45:47,080 Speaker 1: a little bit more work. But it's possible that they 912 00:45:47,080 --> 00:45:49,040 Speaker 1: could hear these things. If you're interested in those details, 913 00:45:49,120 --> 00:45:52,160 Speaker 1: check out our episode on the cosmic gravitational background. And 914 00:45:52,200 --> 00:45:55,000 Speaker 1: then I guess another quick question is, you know, is 915 00:45:55,080 --> 00:45:58,399 Speaker 1: inflation related to the current expansion of the universe, like 916 00:45:58,800 --> 00:46:02,200 Speaker 1: our current expansion be related or be a part of 917 00:46:02,200 --> 00:46:05,560 Speaker 1: that inflation and maybe due to in photonstitute. We just 918 00:46:05,600 --> 00:46:08,080 Speaker 1: don't know. I mean, we see that there is a similarity, 919 00:46:08,440 --> 00:46:10,359 Speaker 1: that there was an expansion of space in the very 920 00:46:10,360 --> 00:46:12,880 Speaker 1: early universe and this an expansion of space in the 921 00:46:12,960 --> 00:46:15,879 Speaker 1: late universe. Remember that dark energy isn't sort of something 922 00:46:15,920 --> 00:46:18,000 Speaker 1: that's been happening the whole time. We think it turned 923 00:46:18,040 --> 00:46:21,680 Speaker 1: down about five billion years ago. So we don't understand 924 00:46:21,760 --> 00:46:24,440 Speaker 1: like why in photons would be created now to cause 925 00:46:24,480 --> 00:46:27,239 Speaker 1: that expansion. Some theories do connect them, that there are 926 00:46:27,280 --> 00:46:30,520 Speaker 1: these theories of quintessence that suggests that the same field 927 00:46:30,600 --> 00:46:33,280 Speaker 1: might be responsible for that and for these but fundamentally 928 00:46:33,360 --> 00:46:35,799 Speaker 1: we just don't understand it. And we don't understand dark 929 00:46:35,920 --> 00:46:39,120 Speaker 1: energy either. Right, We've tried to do these calculations to say, well, 930 00:46:39,320 --> 00:46:43,319 Speaker 1: we see the universe is expanding, and that expansion is accelerating. 931 00:46:43,600 --> 00:46:47,400 Speaker 1: We can measure how big a potential energy with cosmological 932 00:46:47,440 --> 00:46:49,920 Speaker 1: constant you would need for that expansion, and then we 933 00:46:49,960 --> 00:46:52,040 Speaker 1: try to explain that. We say, well, is there that 934 00:46:52,160 --> 00:46:55,400 Speaker 1: much potential energy in the quantum fields of space? And 935 00:46:55,440 --> 00:46:57,279 Speaker 1: we do the calculation and we get a number, and 936 00:46:57,320 --> 00:47:01,200 Speaker 1: that number is tend the one hundred times too big. 937 00:47:01,760 --> 00:47:05,520 Speaker 1: So we just don't understand the connection between quantum fields 938 00:47:05,560 --> 00:47:08,279 Speaker 1: potential energy, and the expansion of space. Where like at 939 00:47:08,320 --> 00:47:10,879 Speaker 1: the very very beginning, this is where we really need 940 00:47:10,920 --> 00:47:13,719 Speaker 1: a theory of quantum gravity that would explain all this 941 00:47:13,800 --> 00:47:15,440 Speaker 1: to us. I think I got it, Daniel, I think 942 00:47:15,480 --> 00:47:18,319 Speaker 1: I know what happened. Oh and you waited to the 943 00:47:18,360 --> 00:47:21,920 Speaker 1: end of the podcast to tell me. Yeah. I mean, clearly, 944 00:47:21,960 --> 00:47:24,719 Speaker 1: the imflotons woke up, they did inflation, and then they 945 00:47:24,719 --> 00:47:27,680 Speaker 1: took a nap, and they're just now waking up to 946 00:47:27,719 --> 00:47:30,040 Speaker 1: cause expansion. I mean, I think that my nap theory 947 00:47:30,080 --> 00:47:32,719 Speaker 1: explains at all. Isn't it the ten billion year nap? 948 00:47:32,840 --> 00:47:35,919 Speaker 1: That's a great theory. I love that. What's a short 949 00:47:36,000 --> 00:47:38,279 Speaker 1: nap if you consider that the universe might go on 950 00:47:38,400 --> 00:47:40,680 Speaker 1: for trillions of years, it could be And there are 951 00:47:40,680 --> 00:47:43,320 Speaker 1: also a few other ways we might get hints about 952 00:47:43,320 --> 00:47:46,320 Speaker 1: whether the in photon was there. Other than just gravitational waves. 953 00:47:46,600 --> 00:47:49,840 Speaker 1: People can look for even more details in this cosmic 954 00:47:49,880 --> 00:47:53,440 Speaker 1: microwave background radiation. Remember that Bicep experiment that thought they 955 00:47:53,440 --> 00:47:56,440 Speaker 1: saw evidence for in photons because of the sort of 956 00:47:56,480 --> 00:47:59,880 Speaker 1: twists and turns in the cosmic microwave background radiation. And 957 00:48:00,000 --> 00:48:03,719 Speaker 1: are folks looking at like correlations of where galaxies are 958 00:48:03,800 --> 00:48:06,480 Speaker 1: in the sky to look for like triangle shapes which 959 00:48:06,560 --> 00:48:09,800 Speaker 1: might come from the way the infloton decayed, Like three 960 00:48:09,840 --> 00:48:13,480 Speaker 1: infloton particles might lead to like a trio of galaxies 961 00:48:13,520 --> 00:48:16,440 Speaker 1: out there in space. So sort of like late structure 962 00:48:16,440 --> 00:48:19,120 Speaker 1: of the universe and early wiggles in the universe were 963 00:48:19,160 --> 00:48:23,359 Speaker 1: digging deep into those to look for evidence of these inflotons. Yeah, 964 00:48:23,440 --> 00:48:26,400 Speaker 1: it's amazing how we're sort of like scraping the bottom 965 00:48:26,400 --> 00:48:28,520 Speaker 1: of the barrel almost, or like we're trying to figure 966 00:48:28,520 --> 00:48:31,040 Speaker 1: out the whole universe, this little tiny people that we 967 00:48:31,080 --> 00:48:33,319 Speaker 1: have in our little corner of the universe. But it's 968 00:48:33,320 --> 00:48:35,560 Speaker 1: all we've got, and it's amazing what we've been able 969 00:48:35,600 --> 00:48:38,279 Speaker 1: to do so far. It's sort of like flabbergasting, you know. 970 00:48:38,560 --> 00:48:40,440 Speaker 1: And the thing that's wonderful about that is that you 971 00:48:40,520 --> 00:48:43,440 Speaker 1: can extrapolate forward and think, like, what will humans do 972 00:48:43,480 --> 00:48:45,840 Speaker 1: in a hundred years or in five hundred years. We 973 00:48:45,840 --> 00:48:48,560 Speaker 1: would be amazed the things that they might have learned 974 00:48:48,600 --> 00:48:52,759 Speaker 1: from like tiniest little hints of the tiniest little photons 975 00:48:52,960 --> 00:48:55,399 Speaker 1: that happened to land on our eyeballs. Yeah. I think 976 00:48:55,400 --> 00:48:57,439 Speaker 1: we talked about this in our first book about how 977 00:48:57,520 --> 00:49:00,120 Speaker 1: we're almost sort of going through a big bang in 978 00:49:00,160 --> 00:49:03,719 Speaker 1: this sense of human knowledge about the universe. Right, Like 979 00:49:03,800 --> 00:49:06,000 Speaker 1: if you look at the history of humanity, our knowledge 980 00:49:06,000 --> 00:49:07,840 Speaker 1: about the universe and how what it's made out of 981 00:49:07,880 --> 00:49:10,480 Speaker 1: and how it started and how it's range really sort 982 00:49:10,480 --> 00:49:13,359 Speaker 1: of exploded in the last few hundred years, right, So 983 00:49:13,400 --> 00:49:15,759 Speaker 1: we're sort of in the middle of this inflation of 984 00:49:16,000 --> 00:49:18,600 Speaker 1: human exploration. That's right. We've been making a lot of 985 00:49:18,640 --> 00:49:21,440 Speaker 1: progress in the last hundred years. And also physicists been 986 00:49:21,440 --> 00:49:23,760 Speaker 1: taking more naps than the last hundred years, So maybe 987 00:49:23,760 --> 00:49:26,200 Speaker 1: there's a connection there. Maybe it's gonna stop. Yeah, just 988 00:49:26,239 --> 00:49:30,000 Speaker 1: like inflation is going to be a ten billion year nap. Daniel, 989 00:49:30,040 --> 00:49:32,440 Speaker 1: you think, or when can we expect more progress if 990 00:49:32,440 --> 00:49:34,440 Speaker 1: we have ten billion more dollars. Hey, I'll turn that 991 00:49:34,480 --> 00:49:36,520 Speaker 1: into more science and you'll wake up. You'll wake up 992 00:49:36,560 --> 00:49:39,560 Speaker 1: for ten billion dollars. But not less, no less than that. 993 00:49:40,800 --> 00:49:43,839 Speaker 1: All right, Well, again, this is a fascinating theory. It's 994 00:49:43,880 --> 00:49:47,080 Speaker 1: an incredible sort of idea that the universe expanded that 995 00:49:47,160 --> 00:49:50,080 Speaker 1: fast and that quickly, and that we might have an 996 00:49:50,080 --> 00:49:52,680 Speaker 1: explanation for it, and that it might just be another 997 00:49:52,880 --> 00:49:56,640 Speaker 1: interesting way that quantum fields interact with space and sort 998 00:49:56,640 --> 00:49:59,040 Speaker 1: of more like a class of explanations right now, because 999 00:49:59,040 --> 00:50:01,640 Speaker 1: there's a lot of for an ideas. But it's really 1000 00:50:01,640 --> 00:50:04,680 Speaker 1: exciting that we have sort of a framework, a framework 1001 00:50:04,719 --> 00:50:07,319 Speaker 1: that predicts these crazy events that were now pretty sure 1002 00:50:07,400 --> 00:50:10,280 Speaker 1: did happen, and that let's just ask deeper questions about 1003 00:50:10,320 --> 00:50:12,759 Speaker 1: you know, why would that field exist and what could 1004 00:50:12,840 --> 00:50:15,040 Speaker 1: cause it? And you know what came before that field. 1005 00:50:15,040 --> 00:50:17,600 Speaker 1: And it's led to some really cool, crazy ideas like 1006 00:50:17,840 --> 00:50:20,920 Speaker 1: this single bounce theory of the universe, that the universe 1007 00:50:20,920 --> 00:50:24,719 Speaker 1: has been contracting for infinity down just before the Big 1008 00:50:24,760 --> 00:50:26,600 Speaker 1: Bang and then it bounced, and it will only bounce 1009 00:50:26,680 --> 00:50:29,520 Speaker 1: once after the big bang, and now we'll expand forever 1010 00:50:30,040 --> 00:50:32,680 Speaker 1: some really beautiful interesting ideas that just give you a 1011 00:50:32,680 --> 00:50:35,920 Speaker 1: different sense for the whole scope of the universe, right, 1012 00:50:36,160 --> 00:50:38,880 Speaker 1: or can that turn around too, and like keep bouncing 1013 00:50:38,960 --> 00:50:42,279 Speaker 1: through infinity? There are multiple infinite bounced theories. But also 1014 00:50:42,280 --> 00:50:44,759 Speaker 1: there's this new theory of a single bounce, which I 1015 00:50:44,800 --> 00:50:47,560 Speaker 1: find sort of cool. I see no more naps. I 1016 00:50:47,560 --> 00:50:50,719 Speaker 1: guess physics will find a way physically. That's right. We'll 1017 00:50:50,800 --> 00:50:53,040 Speaker 1: leave that to the engineers, maybe let them figure it 1018 00:50:53,080 --> 00:50:55,680 Speaker 1: that out. But yeah, it's sort of amazing to think 1019 00:50:55,719 --> 00:50:58,560 Speaker 1: about the beginning of the universe because a lot has 1020 00:50:58,640 --> 00:51:01,040 Speaker 1: happened since. So then next time you look around you 1021 00:51:01,120 --> 00:51:03,520 Speaker 1: and think about the things that are around you and 1022 00:51:03,600 --> 00:51:06,399 Speaker 1: the stuff you're sitting on or writing in, think about 1023 00:51:06,440 --> 00:51:09,040 Speaker 1: how it all came from this incredible state that the 1024 00:51:09,120 --> 00:51:12,080 Speaker 1: universe was in, and how maybe we all came from 1025 00:51:12,200 --> 00:51:15,600 Speaker 1: in photons. And maybe one day we'll discover the chicken 1026 00:51:15,640 --> 00:51:17,480 Speaker 1: that laid that egg, that growed to be that chicken 1027 00:51:17,520 --> 00:51:19,439 Speaker 1: that laid that egg, and get all the way back 1028 00:51:19,440 --> 00:51:21,759 Speaker 1: to something which sort of makes sense on its own 1029 00:51:21,840 --> 00:51:24,920 Speaker 1: and doesn't require an explanation, or maybe not. Maybe we'll 1030 00:51:24,960 --> 00:51:27,879 Speaker 1: just keep digging forever. Right, Maybe was the chicken ton, 1031 00:51:28,239 --> 00:51:32,360 Speaker 1: the plan, the foul on? Well, we hope you enjoyed that. 1032 00:51:32,560 --> 00:51:43,240 Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us, see you next time. Thanks for listening, 1033 00:51:43,239 --> 00:51:45,960 Speaker 1: and remember that Daniel and Jorge explained. The Universe is 1034 00:51:46,000 --> 00:51:49,480 Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio. Or more podcast from 1035 00:51:49,520 --> 00:51:53,279 Speaker 1: my heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 1036 00:51:53,400 --> 00:52:01,320 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. No