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Caltech

Physics Research Conference

Thursday, May 28, 2015
4:00pm to 5:00pm
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East Bridge 201 (Richard P. Feynman Lecture Hall)
The Biard Lecture: Inflationary Cosmology: Is Our Universe Part of a Multiverse?
Alan Guth, Victor F. Weisskopf Professor of Physics and MacVicar Faculty Fellow, MIT,

Inflationary cosmology gives a very plausible explanation for many features of our universe, including its uniformity, its mass density, and the patterns of the ripples that are observed in the cosmic microwave background. I will explain the basics of how inflation works, and how it leads to these successful predictions. An interesting feature of inflation is that almost all versions of it lead to eternal inflation: once inflation starts, it goes on forever, producing a "multiverse" of "pocket universes," one of which would be our universe. The multiverse idea is speculative, but I will explain why I believe it should be taken seriously.

For more information, please contact Sheri Stoll by phone at 395-6608 or by email at sstoll@caltech.edu or visit http://pmaweb.caltech.edu/~physcoll/PhysColl.html.