Bob B, where are the calculations?
Here.
Cosmic inflation
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_inflation
In physical cosmology, cosmic inflation is the idea that the nascent universe passed through a phase of exponential expansion that was driven by a negative-pressure vacuum energy density.[1] As a direct consequence of this expansion, all of the observable universe originated in a small causally-connected region. Inflation answers the classic conundrums of the big bang cosmology: why does the universe appear flat, homogeneous and isotropic in accordance with the cosmological principle when one would expect, on the basis of the physics of the big bang, a highly curved, inhomogeneous universe. Inflation also explains the origin of the large-scale structure of the cosmos. Quantum fluctuations in the microscopic inflationary region, magnified to cosmic size, become the seeds for the growth of structure in the universe (see galaxy formation and evolution and structure formation).
Inflation was first proposed by American physicist and cosmologist Alan Guth in 1981[2] and was given its modern form independently by Andrei Linde,[3] and by Andreas Albrecht and Paul Steinhardt.[4]
While the detailed particle physics mechanism responsible for inflation is not known, the basic picture makes a number of predictions that have been confirmed by observational tests. Inflation is thus now considered part of the standard hot big bang cosmology. The hypothetical particle or field thought to be responsible for inflation is called the inflaton.
Inflationary epoch
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflationary_epoch
In physical cosmology the inflationary epoch was the period in the evolution of the early universe when, according to inflation theory, the universe underwent an extremely rapid exponential expansion. This rapid expansion increased the linear dimensions of the early universe by a factor of at least 10
26 (and possibly a much larger factor), and so increased its volume by a factor of at least 10
78.
The expansion is thought to have been triggered by the phase transition that marked the end of the preceding grand unification epoch at approximately 10-35 seconds after the Big Bang. One of the theoretical products of this phase transition was a scalar field called the inflaton field. As this field settled into its lowest energy state throughout the universe, it generated a repulsive force that led to a rapid expansion of the fabric of space-time. This expansion explains various properties of the current universe that are difficult to account for without such an inflationary epoch.
It is not known exactly when the inflationary epoch ended, but it is thought to have been between 10
-33 and 10
-32 seconds after the Big Bang. The rapid expansion of space meant that elementary particles remaining from the grand unification epoch were now distributed very thinly across the universe. However, the huge potential energy of the inflaton field was released at the end of the inflationary epoch, repopulating the universe with a dense, hot mixture of quarks, anti-quarks and gluons as it entered the electroweak epoch.
The key numbers here are :
10
-33 seconds
and
10
26 times as large.
If this period had lasted just one more interval of 10
-33 seconds the universe would have increased in size from a large orange (or small pumpkin) to its present size of 13.7 billion light years.
Multiply 10
26 times as large by say 0.4 feet (orange or pumpkin sized) we get
0.4 x 10
26 feet.
One light year is 186,000 miles/sec x 5280 feet/mile x 365 days/year x 24 hours/day x 3600 sec/hour = 3.097 x 10
16 light feet
So 13.7 billion light years would be 13.7 x 10
9 (1 billion) x 3.097 x 10
16 feet = 4 x 10
26 feet.
This is within a factor of 10 of what we got by multiplying an orange-sized universe (0.4 feet) by 10
26.
But considering what Wikipedia said above:
“This rapid expansion increased the linear dimensions of the early universe by a factor of at least 10
26 (and possibly a much larger factor)” I think the calculation is seen to be in the right ballpark (only a factor of 10 away).