Abstract:String cosmology is a rapidly changing field, which is still in its early days. One of the most promising applications is to inflation, the theory of superluminal expansion of the early universe, whic...String cosmology is a rapidly changing field, which is still in its early days. One of the most promising applications is to inflation, the theory of superluminal expansion of the early universe, which is receiving spectacular confirmation from experiments, like WMAP, which measure the cosmic microwave background (CMB) fluctuations. Many string theorists hope that this wealth of new data can help to give some empirical tests of string theory, which are so far lacking in particle physics experiments. Although it may be unlikely that the CMB by itself can decide whether inflation is due to string theory or conventional field theory, string theory is also tightly constrained by its own rich mathematical structure, which has made it challenging to build successful models of inflation within realistic and fully consistent vacuum states of string theory. Through a combination of the experimental constraints and those imposed from the need for internal mathematical consistency, it may be possible to eventually pinpoint the most likely models of stringy inflation, and to better focus the strategies of experimental verification.Read More
Publication Year: 2005
Publication Date: 2005-01-21
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 16
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