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Physical Society Colloquium
Robert Brandenberger Brown University Inflationary cosmology has become a cornerstone of modern cosmology. In addition to explaining some of the puzzles of standard big bang cosmology, the inflationary Universe scenario makes predictions for observables, some of which have been spectacularly confirmed by recent experiments. In spite of this success, inflationary cosmology is plagued by important conceptual problems. After reviewing the basics of inflationary cosmology, the colloquium will focus on some areas of recent progress (such as reheating and the theory of cosmological perturbations), and on some of the conceptual problems (e.g. the singularity and cosmological constant problems). Some new approaches to addressing the conceptual problems will be mentioned.
Friday, November 24th 2000, 15:30 |