These weird lumps of 'inflatons' could be the very first structures in the universe
By Mara Johnson-Groh - Live Science Contributor 4 hours ago
Shown here, one of the dense clumps of inflatons that emerged during the inflation phase of the Big Bang, in the infant universe. (Image credit: Jens Niemeyer/University of Göttingen)
An ultra-high-resolution simulation of a tiny slice of the universe — a million times smaller than a proton — has revealed the very first structures to ever exist. And these dense structures are weird.
The first trillionths of a second after the Big Bang, the universe was a hot, soupy place, place, heated to over a trillion degrees. Though scientists can't directly observe this moment in time, they can reconstruct it using high-powered computer simulations.
The new simulations, more detailed than ever before, showed how in these first instances gravity caused quantum particles known as inflatons to lump together. The results showed for the first time how these lumps then formed complex and dense structures that weighed between a few grams to 20 kilograms — roughly heavier than a postage stamp but lighter than a bulldog — packed into a space smaller than an elementary particle.
The simulations are the first that show enough detail that scientists can decipher the range of sizes and shapes of these infant structures. Additionally, the results elegantly matched a simple theoretical model that is nearly 40 years old, said study co-author Richard Easther, a physics professor at the University of Auckland.
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