What happened during the inflation epoch?

In physical cosmology, the inflationary epoch was the period in the evolution of the early universe when, according to inflation theory, the universe underwent an extremely rapid exponential expansion.

Does string theory exist?

String theory is one of the proposed methods for producing a theory of everything, a model that describes all known particles and forces and that would supersede the Standard Model of physics, which can explain everything except gravity. Many scientists believe in string theory because of its mathematical beauty.

What’s the latest on string theory?

Ultimately, baryonic string theory died for two reasons. First, it made predictions that disagreed with experiments. This new theory, called quantum chromodynamics, or QCD, today remains our theory of the strong nuclear force. And as for string theory, it mostly faded into the background.

How does inflation explain the flatness of the universe?

The inflation theory predicts that the ultra-fast inflation would have expanded away any large-scale curvature of the part of the universe we can detect. The small universe inflated by a large amount and the part of the universe you can observe appears to be nearly flat. That solves the flatness problem.

What does inflation theory explain?

The Inflation Theory proposes a period of extremely rapid (exponential) expansion of the universe during its first few moments. It was developed around 1980 to explain several puzzles with the standard Big Bang theory, in which the universe expands relatively gradually throughout its history.

Why does string theory exist?

Because string theory potentially provides a unified description of gravity and particle physics, it is a candidate for a theory of everything, a self-contained mathematical model that describes all fundamental forces and forms of matter.