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Inflaton
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{{short description|Hypothetical field that may have driven cosmic inflation}} {{About|a particle/quantum field posited in cosmology|a general rise in the level of prices|Inflation|other uses of "inflation"|Inflation (disambiguation)}} {{distinguish|Instanton}} The '''inflaton field''' is a hypothetical [[Scalar field theory|scalar field]] that is conjectured to have driven [[Inflation (cosmology)|cosmic inflation]] in the [[very early universe]].<ref name="Guth1997"> {{cite book |author=Guth, Alan H. |author-link=Alan Guth |title=The Inflationary Universe: The Quest for a New Theory of Cosmic Origins |date=1997 |publisher=[[Basic Books]] |pages=[https://archive.org/details/inflationaryuniv0000guth/page/233 233]β234 |url=https://archive.org/details/inflationaryuniv0000guth |url-access=registration |isbn=978-0201328400 }}</ref><ref> {{cite book |author=Steinhardt, Paul J. |author-link=Paul Steinhardt |author2=Turok, Neil |author-link2=Neil Turok |title=Endless Universe: Beyond the Bang |page=114 |year=2007 |publisher=[[Random House]] |isbn=978-0-7679-1501-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Jp6gJCuvj-kC&pg=PA114 }}</ref><ref> {{cite journal |author=Steinhardt, Paul J. |title=Inflation Debate: Is the theory at the heart of modern cosmology deeply flawed? |journal=Scientific American |date=April 2011 |url=http://www.physics.princeton.edu/~steinh/0411036.pdf |access-date=2013-12-31 |archive-date=2014-08-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140824094646/http://www.physics.princeton.edu/~steinh/0411036.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> The field, originally postulated by [[Alan Guth]],<ref name="Guth1997" /> provides a mechanism by which a period of rapid [[metric expansion of space|expansion]] from 10<sup>−35</sup> to 10<sup>−34</sup> [[second]]s after the [[Big Bang|initial expansion]] can be generated, forming a universe that is not inconsistent with observed spatial [[isotropy]] and homogeneity.
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