Note: A small number of symbols such as a (alpha), b (beta), g (gamma) and j (phi), appearing in the narrative, may not be readable unless the Symbol Font is installed on your computer, and supported by your browser.
©1997 Erik VanMarcke
Inflation, in the context of the big bang theory, refers to the episode of exponential expansion of the very early universe indicated by particle physics' Grand Unified Theories (Extensive references to the scientific literature, found in the book, are omitted in this synopsis). Accounting for the particulate, evolutionary and stochastic nature of inflation -- expressed by a fully-developed mathematical model, introduced in the book -- leads to a highly informative probabilistic description of the distribution of particle energies just after inflation, providing initial conditions for a specific scenario of how cosmic structure forms and evolves. The theory traces the origin and evolution of the precursor nebulae of a broad hierarchy of observed astronomical objects to sequences of individual energy quanta produced during a random process of proliferation of inflation-era particles, called "microcells"; it parallels the inflation-scenario-based standard hot big bang theory, sharing its properties of overall flatness and large-scale homogeneity, but also predicts clustering and variability of attributes of nebulae everywhere, along with a bubbly overall structure.
The proposed model has a small number of scalar parameters, accessible through theory and observations, and generates many testable predictions. It has strong implications for the formation, evolution, internal structure and composition of collapsed objects like stars and planets, identifying an iron-rich "primeval plasma" as core-mass constituent and long-term source of intrinsic heat and magnetism, thereby giving rise to a robust alternative to the dual paradigm of spatially uniform primordial nucleosynthesis, yielding only light elements, and stellar recycling of matter as the sole mechanism of heavy-element production in the universe. We present the theory of "stochastic embryonic inflation" and its consequences for the origin of structure -- from the large scale down to, say, macromolecules -- in a series of twelve chapters. These could have been submitted for publication as separate articles but precious bonds between closely related concepts would have been broken, and the opportunity offered by the monograph format to stress the unity of the findings and methods of analysis would have been lost.
A key difference between standard big bang theory (with inflation) and the embryonic-inflation-based theory is that the former assumes spatial uniformity, early on, in temperature and composition. Either model involves overall exponential expansion during inflation, but embryonic inflation theory also incorporates quantum-physical effects such as: production of energy in quanta with random "energy ratios" or "mass ratios" (energy of quanta divided by their nominal energy), their probability density function derived from the Planck radiation spectrum (in Chapter 1); intrinsic uncertainty, expressed by the variance of the logarithm of the mass ratios of all energy quanta produced during inflation; embryo-like growth of each primordial microcell into a (microcell-filled) "macrocell", the basic large-scale unit in the post-inflation universe; and the inverse relation between the sizes (wavelengths) and energies of all inflation-era quanta and particles, so that the link between space curvature and energy density (at the heart of Einstein's general theory of relativity) also characterizes the complex energy distribution inside each macrocell after inflation.
The titles of the main sections of the 12 chapters -- see Table of Contents -- provide a good overview of how the material is organized. Three appendices, included for easy reference, review homogeneous expanding-universe models and the inflationary universe scenario. In Chapter 1, we express the uncertainty of the properties of individual energy quanta "sampled" from a collection of quanta in thermal equilibrium in terms of the Planck radiation function. Chapter 2 describes the stochastic embryonic inflation model and Chapter 3 evaluates the resulting complex distribution of energies of end-of-inflation microcells, called "X particles". Chapter 4 assesses embryonic inflation's implications for the distribution of baryons and antibaryons, the descendants of the X particles formed during the ("Grand-Unified") phase transition just after inflation. We analyze in Chapter 5 the smoothing of the primeval temperature fluctuations throughout an "encroaching" cosmic background, causing photon-to-baryon ratios to increase, overall, and become highly variable. Primordial nucleosynthesis after embryonic inflation, the subject of Chapter 6, yields spatially varying abundances of elements, including heavy elements in all the densest cosmic regions. The theory of structure formation consistent with embryonic inflation -- a scenario of simultaneous evolution of the precursor nebulae of galaxies and solar systems -- is presented in Chapter 7. First estimates of all the model's parameters are obtained in Chapter 8. The theory is then applied to the study of the origin of galaxies and quasars, in Chapter 9, and of constituents of solar systems (stars and planets), in Chapter 10. The focus in Chapter 11 is on the theory's implications for particle physics, most notably concerning the role of gravity and the origin of the handedness of material particles. In Chapter 12, we compare aspects of "cosmic genetics" inherent in the embryonic inflation model to the growth and evolution of biological systems, and conclude with a general assessment of the theory, its multidisciplinary and predictive nature implying many and varied ways of testing theory against observations.
The research on Quantum Origins of Cosmic Structure was done, "for the sheer challenge of it", on and off for over a decade, with peak intensity during two sabbatical leaves, at Harvard University (in 1985), on leave from M.I.T., and Stanford University (in 1991), on leave from Princeton. The idea for the model grew out of my earlier research on methods for analyzing complex random variation, culminating in Random Fields: Analysis and Synthesis (The M.I.T. Press 1983). The enormous spatial variation and organized complexity apparent in the large-scale distribution of matter hinted, I felt, that a tractable "random field model" might exist for the density fluctuations produced during the inflation phase of the big bang. Another point of departure was my experience with geostatistics and assessment of geo-environmental risks. Pervasive self-similar patterns in the Earth's physical and chemical properties might already have existed in the "terrestrial cloud" long before it collapsed (some 4.6 billion years ago), and the laws of very-early-universe physics -- quantum cosmology -- producing complexity on the scale of galaxies and clusters of galaxies might not differ from those causing planet-scale and rock-mass-scale variability; if true, this would amount to a Copernican-style revolution in our view and understanding of the place of the Earth and the Solar System in the universe.
Strong similarities exist between the inflation-era growth of macrocells (according to the model) and the early embryonic development of (biological) organisms. Each primordial microcell grows into a macrocell, a cluster of end-of-inflation microcells or "X particles", during an estimated total of n = 241 cycles of particle proliferation. Genetic coordinates x(i), where i = 0, 1, 2, ... counts the number of inflation cycles, identify "cycle-i nebulae", each filled with X particles originating from a common-ancestor microcell that existed during the i-th cycle. During each cycle, each existing microcell is replaced by a pair of offspring microcells which inherit, imperfectly, their parent-microcell's physical properties such as energy and wavelength. This can be physically realized, we argue, by repeated particle-pair production, each identical-twin pair of offspring microcells acquiring properties that differ by a random quantum amount from their parent's. Quantum fluctuations in space and time during the embryo-like growth -- the cascade of particle-pair production -- produce multi-scale macroscopic variability of attributes of each macrocell's X particles and X-particle-filled "nebulae". The large-scale structure just after inflation consists, according to the model, of macrocells and, in between, interconnected "primeval void space".
The "cosmogenic chain reaction" allows for the genetic transmission of the cumulative effects of quantum fluctuations -- each X particle's physical properties depend on those of a string of n+1 inflation-era energy quanta -- and hence yields far more intense, nonlinear energy-density fluctuations inside each nested-nebula cluster (macrocell) than are realizable in the context of standard big bang theory, heralding the development of structure across a vast hierarchy of masses (and "density ratios") of cosmic objects, from superclusters of galaxies and great voids down to objects belonging to the precursor nebulae of solar systems. In a universe with origin in embryonic inflation, many properties of coexisting objects can be understood in terms of the "shadow coordinates" and "lineage traces" of their precursor nebulae in the "mass ratio vs. cycle count diagram" (Chapter 2).
In matter-dominated regions where collapsed objects later form, nebulae with about the same cycle count i (indicating a nebula's aggregate mass and internal complexity) and mass ratio w = w(i) (indicating a nebula's density of baryon-precursor X particles relative to the intra-macrocell mean density of X particles) evolve in similar ways. Strong coupling is shown to exist between the thermal history, the nuclear and chemical evolution, the magnetic-field history, the tendency to cluster, and the incidence of particular types of component objects inside nebulae with similar shadow coordinates (w,i) and lineage traces in the mass ratio v. cycle count diagram.
The heterogeneity index j = a/b = 0.8183 equals the quotient of a = 0.5672, the variance of the logarithm of the quantum mass ratio (whose probability density function is derived from the Planck radiation spectrum in Chapter 1), and b = log b = log 2 = 0.693, the logarithm of the fractional increase (b = 2) in the microcell count per inflation cycle, or the branch count at each node of a macrocell's "genealogical tree". The parameter j links quantum fluctuations during embryonic inflation to multi-scale patterns of clustering and spatial variation characterizing the distribution of baryonic particles inside each macrocell after inflation. The value of j also meets a number of observational constraints arising in the context of the embryonic-inflation-based theory of structure formation (Chapters 7, 9 & 10). In particular, the theory would fail to corroborate the existence of massive black holes in case j < 0.4, while predicted masses and spatial frequencies of black holes would exceed those consistent with observations in case j > 1.
Based on first principles and requiring a minimum number of parameters, the embryonic inflation model is detailed and quantitative, yielding numerous predictions fit for comparison with observations. The structure and composition of the observable universe, within the framework of the theory, depend on how microcells proliferated, and how their energies evolved, during inflation. Each macrocell stems from a single primordial microcell, and each component nebula's properties are conditioned by the mass ratio of its first-ancestor microcell. The latter, in turn, depends on the properties of a finite sequence of energy quanta, all characterized by the inverse relation between energies and wavelengths, mutual statistical independence and quantum-physical uncertainty.
Knowledge of the nominal energy per quantum during inflation suffices to describe the properties of all "transition energy quanta" and "microcells", but the condition of general thermal equilibrium which (according to the model) existed just prior to inflation is irretrievably lost. Differences in the material-particle density ratios of nebulae after inflation can be so extreme that certain classes of nebulae are destined to evolve into (observed) gravitational anomalies like black holes and great voids; both phenomena are traceable to rare sequences of individual quanta with opposite-extreme -- respectively, high and low -- group-average quantum mass ratios. The bio-mimicking, deviation-transmitting nature of microcell proliferation during embryonic inflation, giving rise to a universe with information-rich structure, requires j > 0. In this sense, any model in which j is zero or negligible, like the standard big bang model with inflation, may be seen as a physically unrealizable special case of the embryonic inflation model.
The baryon-yielding phase transition just after embryonic inflation results, we show in Chapter 4, in an intricate distribution of two principal types of descendants of the X particles, namely primeval baryons ("X+ particles") and primeval antibaryons ("X- particles"), patterned after the complex energy-density or space-curvature fluctuations produced by inflation. We estimate the relative abundances of the two types of particles based on the requirement that the classical Friedmann equation (derived from general relativity theory) be satisfied, just after inflation, inside tiny regions, called "first-horizon cells", containing particles in causal contact. Each macrocell becomes a "mosaic" of non-overlapping regions expanding consistent with either the closed (k = +1) or the open (k = -1) Friedmann cosmological model, each nebula's relative abundances of X+ and X- particles dependent on its mass ratio w and cycle count i. The boundary regions separating matter from antimatter consist of neutral "X0 particles" and expand as described by the flat (k = 0) Einstein - deSitter cosmological model. The overall densities of baryon and antibaryons (at any fixed post-inflation time) are predicted to be nearly equal, but the quantum-physical inverse relation between the energies and wavelengths of inflation-produced quanta and particles ensures that matter-dominated regions are relatively dense and compact, and antimatter-dominated regions (relatively) diluted and oversized.
Events during embryonic inflation and "stochastic baryogenesis", in combination, are at the basis of a quantum theory of gravity, compatible with -- fit to "pass the baton to" -- general relativity theory at the end of inflation, when Hubble expansion starts (at a time designated t = t*). The model is shown to be consistent with the standard model of subatomic particles and to shed light on the origin of the "handedness" (chirality) of material particles and the need for physically realizable relativistic quantum fields to be "renormalizable" (Chapter 11); and it offers new perspectives on how the inflation-era symmetry between the basic interactions of nature -- gravity included -- may have been broken during the baryon-yielding phase transition; primordial microcells, X particles and their baryonic descendants X+, X- and X0 can all be interpreted in the context of relativistic quantum-field theory.
Embryonic inflation links the smallest and the largest sizes of objects -- each primordial microcell grows into a macrocell, the basic large-scale unit of the Hubble-expanding universe -- and the large-scale structure of the universe depends on the details of what happened during the earliest cycles of the embryo-like growth. Among the most conspicuous component nebulae of macrocells, within the framework of the theory, are "s-cells" (precursors of superclusters of galaxies) and "v-cells" (precursors of giant voids). The random sizes of macrocells are directly linked to the Planck radiation spectrum; based on the initial estimate for the present nominal macrocell radius, Ro = 16.5 Megaparsec (Mpc), the present radii of v-cells generally match the radii of the (observed) giant voids in the large-scale structure. The aggregate mass of macrocells, estimated at 3 times 10-to-the-15th-power (or 3 million billion) solar masses, provides a natural upper limit on the masses of strongly coherent "cluster balls", but relatively dense and compact macrocells, subject to mutual gravitational attraction, might logically be expected to aggregate into luminous superstructures, especially near the boundaries of great voids (Chapter 9).
The embryonic-inflation-based theory of the origin of structure considerably raises the standard for such theories, as it goes into far more detail than heretofore-proposed galaxy formation scenarios based on "hot" or "cold" dark matter; the latter generally indicate only whether the masses of objects forming first are small (as in the "bottom up" gravitational hierarchical model) or large (as in the "top down" pancake model); they suffer from lack of knowledge about the missing mass and difficulties in fitting observations, particularly of the earliest quasars, the luminous superstructures, and the vast spatial scale of the faint fluctuations in the temperatures of the cosmic background radiation (CBR). Observation-based constraints on cosmological parameters, interpreted in the context of standard big bang theory, recently provoked (what has been called) a crisis in cosmology: current best estimates of the Hubble constant, around Ho = 75 km/sec per Mpc, correspond -- if, as inflation requires, the mean matter density equals the critical density -- to an approximate "age of the universe", to = (2/3)/Ho = 9 billion years (Gyr), smaller than the independently-inferred upper bound on stellar ages, 13 ± 3 Gyr, indicating (absurdly) a universe younger than some of the stars in it.
The question of "closure", as commonly posed, hinges on whether the mean matter density now equals the critical density, a function of Hubble's constant. After embryonic inflation, baryons and antibaryons are, overall, about equally abundant -- the two types of particles can stably exist in separate intra-macrocell regions -- and a fraction of the cosmic volume consists of "void space" (filled with CBR photons) between the macrocells. Assuming the latter now accounts for about half the cosmic volume, the unit-mean mass density ratio inside macrocells, a consequence of embryonic inflation, would be consistent with an initial overall matter density ratio ("omega") of about 25%, roughly equal to the overall antimatter density ratio; and both density ratios are predicted to decrease with time owing to matter-antimatter annihilation. The energy density in the space between the macrocells is presently far below critical, and the theory indicates that the universe expands, overall, as if empty of material particles. Ever since CBR-decoupling, the inter-macrocell space sets the overall pace of the expansion, taking the gravitationally-interacting macrocells "along for the ride"; the overall distance scale factor (since CBR-decoupling) varies linearly with time, implying Ho to = 1. The cosmic age to equals the "Hubble time" 1/Ho, tending to remedy the discrepancy in the values of Ho and to in the flat-and-matter-only case (when Ho to = 2/3) and enhancing stellar-age predictions as a way to constrain the Hubble constant's value.
In a universe evolving after embryonic inflation, structure formation is neither "top down" nor "bottom up"; instead, the precursor nebulae of objects with masses constituting a broad hierarchy evolve simultaneously. The theory yields a comprehensive set of predictions, prima facie consistent with observations, for the masses, morphology, stellar populations and space-time occurrence patterns of different types of galaxies. Many observed properties of quasars -- their extreme compactness, the nature of their activity, their range of masses and redshifts when they first become active, and their association with galactic nuclei -- also fit into a unified scenario of cosmic evolution after embryonic inflation. Nearly all bright galaxies should contain at least one massive central black hole, and the arms of spiral galaxies appear to be the remnants of "quasar jets" expressing the activity in the galactic-center black holes (Chapter 9).
The key to understanding the simultaneous evolution of the precursor nebulae of galaxies and solar systems is the (random) process of exceedances, and the topology of regions of exceedance, of two high threshold levels by the (primeval) nebula mass ratios w, or by their third power, the primeval-particle density ratios -- the latter are equivalent to matter density ratios in the matter-rich nebulae where collapsed objects later form (Chapter 7 & 8). Expressed in terms of density ratios, the lower threshold approaches the density enhancement, relative to the cosmic-mean density, seen in the bright central parts of galaxies, while the higher threshold is indicative of the extreme density contrasts produced by embryonic inflation inside nebulae destined to evolve into the core or seed mass of collapsed objects like stars and planets.
The primeval nebula-mass-ratio distribution implies the existence, inside each macrocell, of a broad and continuous range of masses of "B nebulae" (massive nebulae with mass ratio close to 70, the lower threshold) and "P nebulae" (much less massive but denser nebulae with a mass ratio of around 8 billion, the higher threshold). Each P nebula necessarily belongs to an "ancestor" or "host" (galaxy-precursor) B nebula, and the P nebulae tend to have much smaller masses, but much larger density ratios, than their ancestor B nebulae. The great height of the B-nebula mass ratio threshold and the complex correlation stemming from common ancestry during embryonic inflation, insure that B nebulae tend to be rare, occur in clusters, and differ greatly in overall masses, sizes, and peak internal densities. Overall, the B nebulae account for a tiny fraction of the volume, but a much larger fraction of the baryon mass, of the universe.During the galaxy-formation era, as the "galaxy maturation index" g = g(t) goes from 0 to 1, each galaxy-precursor B nebula fragments into delayed-decoupling "Dg nebulae", with steadily decreasing mass and increasing mass ratio; D0 and D1 nebulae correspond, respectively, to B and P nebulae. Toward the end of the galaxy-formation era, as g approaches 1, close to the time the Solar System formed (4.6 billion years ago), stars and planets came into existence as different types of collapsed objects with primeval plasma (confined to P nebulae) in their cores.
The theory can explain the statistics of the observed faint long-range fluctuations in CBR temperatures (Chapter 5) and elucidates why they provide so few clues about the origin of galaxies. When the universe first became transparent to radiation -- but only throughout, literally, a "cosmic background" that did not include the galaxy-precursor B nebulae -- local matter densities were far more variable than the CBR temperatures. Throughout this "background", the coupling between the evolving spatial random fields of plasma temperatures and matter densities, very strong just after inflation and baryogenesis, had become very weak. The intra-macrocell energy density fluctuations at the end of inflation were all but erased throughout an encroaching cosmic background during early-universe temperature smoothing -- the present high photon-to-baryon ratio is a relic from that era --but remain in evidence in the cosmic distribution of matter and antimatter.
At the time of decoupling of the background radiation, the galaxy-precursor B nebula were like "islands", occurring in isolated clusters, in the "sea" of CBR-photons, their internal temperatures still above the recombination threshold Trec, valued at about 3,000 degrees Kelvin, too high for stable neutral atoms to form. The temperature at the B-nebula boundaries was the same (equal to Trec ) as in regions comprising the cosmic background, so that the universe would have appeared highly uniform as regards temperature to hypothetical observers in the just-decoupled "background". The interiors of B nebulae were then still hotter and denser than the background, but could not be observed because they were still in an opaque (not-transparent-to-radiation) "primeval plasma" state. After CBR-decoupling, the temperature in regions comprising the background steadily dropped (due to expansion), while at the boundaries of the remnant primeval-plasma parts of B nebulae, the temperature stayed at or near Trec, defining delayed-decoupling "Dg nebulae", marked by continued delay in the transition from the primeval-plasma state to the neutral-matter state.
The universe originating in embryonic inflation is characterized by the coexistence, any time after inflation, of a multitude of local thermal equilibria and mixtures of different types of particles, traceable to the complex primeval patterns of X-particle densities and baryonic-particle (X+and X-) abundances. Photon-to-baryon ratios at the start of primordial nucleosynthesis are shown (in Chapter 5) to have ranged from negligible to infinite, in patterns closely coupled to the primeval nebula-mass-ratio distribution. The theory indicates that inside "hot spot" nebulae(with mass ratios exceeding a very high threshold), tending to occur in complex clusters, primordial nucleosynthesis lasted much longer and nucleon concentrations were far greater than predicted by "standard" nucleosynthesis theory, explaining why heavy elements were produced there, in partially-predictable spatial patterns of relative abundances. The intra-macrocell nested-nebula texture is such that the regions where heavy elements formed necessarily belonged to galaxy-precursor B nebulae.
The theories of "stochastic primordial nucleosynthesis" (Chapter 6) and structure formation (Chapter 7) consistent with embryonic inflation provide a coherent framework for explaining the evident cosmic diversity of elemental and molecular abundances. Non-primordial nucleosynthesis appears to cause only local and secondary changes in a complex primordial distribution of elements, and is scarcely needed to explain the observations. Stars are not "burdened" with the role assigned to them in the standard model context, of being the sole producers of heavy elements. Any galaxy-precursor nebula contains, besides many heavy-element-enriched solar-system-precursor nebulae, many less dense heavy-element-deficient offspring nebulae, and any sufficiently massive hydrogen-rich cloud is expected to be "polluted" by sporadic heavy-element concentrations. Single protons and, in extended low-mass-ratio cosmic regions, single antiprotons (along with charge-balancing electrons and positrons, and abundant photons) constitute much of the "dark mass" -- a primeval-plasma gas -- accounting for a significant (quantifiable) fraction of the rest mass of macrocells (Chapter 9). The consequences of the existence and distribution of antimatter (peculiar rates of expansion and sporadic matter-antimatter annihilation, at telltale times and places) should be verifiable through a theory-driven program of astronomical observations.
The embryonic inflation model and what it implies for the origin of structure have profound consequences for astrophysics, the physics of stellar phenomena. First, the distribution of baryons produced just after inflation is complex and clustered in a manner broadly consistent with the observed density contrasts in galaxies and stars, explaining the extreme densification involved in star formation and the clustering of stars in galaxies. Second, primeval plasma in what are referred to as "P nebulae", serving as gravitational nuclei, endows any newly-formed star -- necessarily located at a very high local peak of the primeval-temperature-ratio field -- with a reservoir of "free" heat energy. This means that less nuclear fusion, hence less neutrino production, is needed to account for observed stellar luminosities. Third, stars are not the sole producers of heavy elements; energy in primeval plasma bestows longevity on massive stars, a key factor in explaining why the current concept of repeated stellar births and deaths, compatible with standard stellar models and needed to reconcile observed cosmo-chemistry with standard-model-based predictions of primordial-nucleosynthesis yields, requires urgent revision. Fourth, stars of all types may have planet-like companion objects, formed in about the same way and around the same time as in the Solar System (Chapter 10).
The theory's consequences for Earth and planetary sciences parallel those for astrophysics; both disciplines are unified with cosmology in a scenario of seamless, simultaneous evolution. It is consistent with the structure formation scenario that, in a typical presolar nebula, a number of objects with primeval-plasma cores escape capture by the nebula's star, becoming planets or moons. Each object has its own intrinsic magnetic field, short-lived in case the P-region core is small, and may have its own satellite(s) or companion object(s). The evolution of solar systems, once formed, is quite well understood; the theory's essential contribution is that it explains the initial conditions, namely: the origin of the precursor nebulae of planets and their satellites in embryonic inflation; the accretion onto preexisting solid iron-rich primeval-plasma core masses, serving as sources of intrinsic heat and magnetism; the primordial origin of chemical elements, with a local distribution of relative abundances, centered on each P-nebula core, tending toward spherical symmetry. The Earth's inner core, in particular, is an iron-rich solid-state (crystalline) primeval plasma, while the present liquid-iron outer core is most logically the part of the original primeval-plasma core that has slowly cooled and become neutral in the course of geologic time. Heat from the inner core drives convective flows in the mantle sustaining tectonic-plate motions and volcanic activity; this heat flow gradually depletes the "primeval-plasma-energy supply", a process basic to the evolution of any dark cosmic object with a primeval-plasma core. The theory also sheds light on the origin and nature of (observed) fractal patterns of variation of physical properties and elemental abundances inside,for instance, the crusts of terrestrial planets, providing opportunities for earthbound testing of the theory.
Stochastic embryonic inflation theory (Chapter 3) and its consequences for the origin of baryons and antibaryons (Chapter 4), elements (Chapter 6), stars and planets (Chapters 7 & 10), quasars, galaxies and large-scale structure (Chapter 9) provide the basis for a predictive (forward-moving) approach to cosmology, based on "first principles" consistent with quantum physics, complementing the standard approach of tracing the observed universe backward in time. The embryonic inflation model both complements and supersedes the inflation-scenario-based standard hot-big-bang model; the key limitation of the standard theory is that it assumes an early Hubble-expanding universe in general thermal equilibrium. Either model involves overall exponential expansion during an episode of inflation, but embryonic inflation also accounts for the particulate, stochastic and evolutionary nature of the growth process.
The theory is consistent with the main facts about the universe: the general expansion; the faint long-range ripples in the otherwise nearly uniform distribution of CBR-temperatures; the complex matter distribution, tending toward overall homogeneity and isotropy on the largest scales but also possessing large-scale features such as "cluster balls", great voids and luminous superstructures; an observed matter density ratio significantly below the unit value needed to "close" the universe; and the overall relative abundances and complex local patterns of abundances of elements.
In challenging current paradigms for the structure and the intensity of the primeval density fluctuations, for the origin and distribution of the elements, for stellar evolution and energy sources, and for the origin and evolution of dark objects like planets, embryonic inflation theory derives robustness from, first, its roots in a detailed ab initio scenario of quantum-physical and embryo-like growth during the inflation phase of the big bang, second, the paucity of model parameters, accessible through a combination of theory and observations, and interdependent so as to leave essentially no free parameters, and third, support from observations of, and links between predictions about, many astronomical objects and phenomena in a unified evolutionary framework.
The most significant testable hypotheses arising in a universe with origin in embryonic inflation relate to: the existence of "primeval ('never-before-neutral') plasma" in remnants of nebulae with either very high or very low primeval density ratios; the role of primeval plasma in the formation, energy balance, and evolution of stars; the internal structure, composition and energy sources of dark objects like planets; the primordial origin of the elements; the predicted spatial patterns of elemental abundances, and in particular, the association of solid, iron-rich primeval plasma with ultra-high-mass-ratio nebulae providing core material for stars and planets; the formation and evolution of galaxies, including the origin of spiral structure; the origin and nature of the activity in quasars and galactic nuclei; the cellular large-scale structure of the universe and the space in between macrocells; the matter-antimatter (closed/open) intra-macrocell composition, and consequently the link between the geometry and composition of nebulae; the intensity and spatial scale of the CBR-temperature fluctuations; and, based on what the theory implies for particle physics, the non-existence, any time after inflation, of isolated quarks, decaying protons, or magnetic monopoles, all of which are, or have been, targets of search in physics experiments.
The theory indicates strong coupling between the temperature history, chemical evolution, magnetic-field history, and structure formation scenario in nebulae with similar "shadow coordinates" and lineage traces in the mass ratio versus cycle count diagram. Confirmation of the parts of the theory pertaining to the primordial origin of heavy elements and their spatial patterns of abundances (i.e., the diversity, early on, of elements and isotopes), by comparing predicted and observed abundances, would be tantamount to tracing the contents of nebulae back to the era of primordial nucleosynthesis, shortly after inflation. Moreover, the origin of, say, the Solar System's precursor nebula (with cycle count i = 51) and the "terrestrial nebula" (i = 70) can be traced back to a time less than one-third of the way into the "era of inflation", corresponding to a tiny fraction of the first second.
The multitude of ways to check how well the theory fits the facts brings to mind physicist Philip Anderson's comments about models for complex materials: "We know so much about how materials go together that if you have an explanation of any phenomenon that isn't obviously wrong, it's certainly right. Because if it's wrong, it will be obviously wrong; it will violate one of many, many constraints on how things work. You may not be able to explain all the details; you may not be able to put the whole thing together in any definite way. But if the things that are left over to explain are not absolutely crippling, then you're right." In other words: "If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a duck" (or a very good model of one). May the reader judge and time tell, but the quotes seem pertinent to assessing whether embryonic-inflation-based big bang theory can help "explain" the ultimate source of complex materials, the universe.
As a "science of origins", evolutionary cosmology based on embryonic inflation invites and enables a unified approach to a number of central problems in diverse scientific disciplines. Listed below are the main fields and topics -- all are mentioned in the book's Index -- for which the theory appears to have first-order relevance: physics (inflation-era quantum cosmology, origin of handedness, cosmic antimatter, entropy and information quanta, properties of quasars, solar neutrino deficiency, attainment of stellar limit states, cosmic rays); chemistry (origin of elements, spatial patterns of element abundances, early atomic and molecular evolution); life sciences (origin-of-life physical and chemical conditions, evolutionary and embryonic growth models, structure and expression of genetic codes); astronomy and astrophysics (the Hubble constant, large-scale structure, cosmic mass accounting, origin of solar systems, energy and internal structure of stars and planets, origin and evolution of galaxies and quasars, composition of interstellar and intergalactic regions); Earth and planetary sciences (formation of planets, the Earth's core, energy source for tectonic forces, origin of fractal variation of geophysical properties, global change). In the sciences, both "hard" and "soft", the proliferative stochastic growth model serves as the prime example of a class of random field models fit to describe different types of (evolving or mature) "complex systems".
The theory offers many perspectives on natural history, philosophy, and, however unintended, theology. Embryonic inflation may be thought of as the ``gestation'' of macrocells, ending at time t* with the "birth" of the universe. The era of inflation was when, one might say, contrary to Einstein's famous dictum, "God did play dice". Afterward, as each nebula executes its own "genetic program", it seems fitting to say that "no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should" (Desiderata, dated 1602). Time t* marks the transition from "becoming" to "being", from true inflation-era growth (in the number of "particles that matter") to Hubble-expansion-era flow and unfolding; the CBR-photons add principally to the entropy of the universe. The super-dense precursor nebula of the Earth's core, and the planet-precursor nebula enveloping it, were formed, according to the theory, during the big bang, when they were bathed in, and part of, the "primeval light". The very nuclei of elements, like carbon and oxygen, later involved in the origin of life on Earth, were formed in situ shortly after the big bang, not billions of years later in the interiors of countless generations of stars. As to what can be said about 't = 0', the moment of "conception", again some sayings of Einstein come to mind: "I want to know God's thoughts," and "The point of real interest to me is whether God could create a world differently." In Greek mythology, it all began, fittingly it seems (from the terrestrial perspective), with the gods Chaos, Gaea (Earth), and Chronos (Time).
Erik VanMarcke-- evm@princeton.edu-- The author invites your comments and suggestions, and possible expression of interest in (involvement and cooperation in) follow-up research to test, validate and refine the proposed 'unified theory' about the origin and evolution of structure (and of the elements) in the universe.