Abstract:
None of us were consulted when the universe was created. And yet it is tempting to ask not only how the universe evolves, but also why, and could it be different. Our universe weights more than 1050 tons. What would be the simplest way to create it using minimal amount of matter? Would it require a comprehensive project plan, and if so, where was this plan written before the universe was born? Can we study the evolution of the universe by cosmological observations, and then “play the movie back” to the origin of time, or will something unavoidably prevent us from doing it? Why do we live in a 4-dimensional space-time? Why is the universe comprehensible? We will try to approach these and other similar questions and discuss how they may be answered in the context of the theory of the inflationary universe. We will also describe the latest observational results testing various aspects of this theory, including the Planck 2018 data, and the search for the primordial gravitational waves produced during inflation.
Brief Bio:
Andrei Linde was born in Moscow in 1948. He received his Bachelor of Science degree from Moscow State University and his PhD from the Lebedev Physical Institute in Moscow. He worked at CERN, Geneva, since 1989, and then moved to the United States in 1990, where he became Professor of physics at Stanford University. Linde is one of the main authors of the inflationary universe theory, as well as the theory of eternal inflation and inflationary multiverse. He has received various awards for his work on inflation, including the Dirac Medal, the Gruber Prize, the Fundamental Physics Prize, and the Kavli Prize. Linde is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences of the USA.