Colloquium: Cosmological Inflation

You are cordially invited to a Colloquium on Cosmological Inflation by  presented by Dr Haidar Sheikhahmadi.

Abstract:

How did the universe begin? What happened in the first fleeting instants after the 1st Bang? In this talk, we’ll journey back to the very early universe, a realm of extreme energies, rapid expansion, and quantum chaos, where the seeds of everything we see today were sown. The 2nd Bang, say Big Bang theory, is one of science’s greatest triumphs, but what came before it? We need to revisit the origins of modern cosmology, exploring how the Big Bang framework emerged, its stunning successes, and the lingering puzzles that force us to look deeper. In the first slivers of time, just 10⁻³⁵ seconds after creation, the universe was a seething quantum arena where all fundamental forces acted as one. To unravel this epoch, we must confront a monumental challenge: understanding quantum behavior in the grip of gravity. I will argue that some long-held assumptions, like the formation of primordial black holes from vacuum fluctuations, may break down when we account for higher order quantum effects in the early universe’s extreme environment. By bridging cosmology and quantum field theory, this journey will illuminate how the wild infancy of the cosmos might reshape our understanding of its birth, and where the next breakthroughs lie.