"It turns out that the energy of a gravitational field—any gravitational field—is negative. During inflation, as the universe gets bigger and bigger and more and more matter is created, the total energy of matter goes upward by an enormous amount. Meanwhile, however, the energy of gravity becomes more and more negative. The negative gravitational energy cancels the energy in matter, so the total energy of the system remains whatever it was when inflation started—presumably something very small. ...This capability for producing matter in the universe is one crucial difference between the inflationary model and the previous model."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Academics from the United StatesJews from the United StatesCosmologistsPhysicists from the United StatesAstronomers from the United States
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
"A Universe in Your Backyard," in Third Culture: Beyond the Scientific Revolution (1996) ed. John Brockman, p. 279.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alan_Guth
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Alan Guth
24 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Alan Guth →
Related Quotes
"It becomes very tempting to ask whether, in principle, it's possible to create a universe in the laboratory—or a univ…"
"The Big Bang theory says nothing about what banged, why it banged, or what happened before it banged."
"It is said that there’s no such thing as a free lunch. But the universe is the ultimate free lunch."
"We should not act like we know that the universe began with the Big Bang... we'll see that there are strong suggestio…"
"What the Big Bang theory tells us, is that at least our region of the universe 13.82 billion years ago, was an extrem…"
"The conventional Big Bang theory does not say anything about what caused the expansion. It really is only a theory ab…"
"The conventional Big Bang theory says nothing about where all the matter came from. The theory really assumes that fo…"
"In short what I like to say is that the Big Bang says nothing about what banged, why it banged, or what happened befo…"
"Inflation is a prequel to the conventional Big Bang theory. ...It does provide a theory of the propulsion that drove …"
"The recent developments in cosmology strongly suggest that the universe may be the ultimate free lunch."