For Immediate Release, December 17, 1997
Contact: Justin Harmon at (609) 258-5732
PRINCETON, N.J. -- In a new book, Quantum Origins of Cosmic Structure (A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam & Brookfield, VT), Professor Erik VanMarcke introduces a theory, embryonic inflation, to help explain the formation of cosmic structure across a broad hierarchy of astronomical objects (clusters of galaxies, galaxies, stars, planets).
Inflation is the term astrophysicists use to refer to the very rapid expansion in the first instant of the so-called Big Bang, when most believe the universe emerged in a state of extremely high temperature and density at least 10 billion years ago. The new theory is based on a hypothesis about the quantum-physical nature of inflation and the embryo-like development of complex structure through a cascade of particle duplication. The theory leads to a highly informative probabilistic description of the complex distribution of particle energies just after inflation, providing the initial conditions for a specific scenario of how cosmic structure forms and evolves.
VanMarcke's theory traces the origin of the precursor nebulae of different types of cosmic objects to sequences of single energy units, quanta, produced in a random process of proliferation of inflation-era particles. It predicts clustering and variability of attributes of nebulae everywhere, along with a bubbly overall structure, and is consistent with the data on the Microwave Background Radiation.
The theory generates many testable predictions, in particular about the formation, evolution, internal structure and composition of collapsed objects such as stars and planets. It implies a robust alternative to current theories about stellar energy and when and how the nuclei of chemical elements heavier than hydrogen and helium were formed, integrating astrophysical and planetary sciences with galaxy formation in a coherent evolutionary framework.
VanMarcke is a professor in the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Princeton University. He was on the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology until 1985 since receiving his Ph.D. there in 1970. He held visiting appointments at Harvard University and the University of Leuven in his native Belgium, and was the Shimizu Corporation Visiting Professor at Stanford University. The author of Random Fields: Analysis and Synthesis, published by the M.I.T. Press in 1983, he has since extended his studies of complex random variation to modeling the early-universe density fluctuations and their consequences, with results presented in Quantum Origins of Cosmic Structure.
More information is available at the author's web site: http://www.princeton.edu/~evm/
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