Cosmic Inflation: Gravitational Waves and the Physics of Expansion

Summary

The story of our universe begins with one of the most profound and complex questions ever posed: How did it all begin? For centuries, humanity has sought to understand the origins of the cosmos, leading to an ever-evolving tapestry of ideas, theories, and discoveries.

In the early 20th century, the concept of the Big Bang emerged as a groundbreaking model, suggesting that the universe had a finite beginning—a singular moment in time when all matter, energy, and space itself erupted from an incredibly hot and dense state. This theory not only provided a framework for understanding the expansion of the universe but also posed new questions about the very nature of existence.

However, as scientists delved deeper into the implications of the Big Bang, they encountered puzzling anomalies. The uniformity of the cosmic microwave background radiation, the distribution of galaxies, and the large-scale structure of the universe seemed to suggest that something more profound had occurred in the first moments after the universe's birth.