Customer Reviews

The Inflationary Universe

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This book, by one of the major players in the discovery that the universe is inflating, is the best of its kind that I have found.

It is a true inspriration to read about the efforts of Professor Guth to unravel the intricacies behind the unfolding of the universe immediately after the big bang.

The factual information he gives about the universe and reality itself as we proceed, provides an incomparable tableau of our surroundings and universal history.

To share an epic quest for truth and understanding, you cannot do better than to buy this book!

I always enjoy reading books about scientific discoveries by authors who were there. Alan H. Guth's book "The Inflationary Universe" not only provides a revealing look at the development of inflationary theories of the universe, it is by far the best explanation on the subject that I've seen for the general scientifically literate public.

Guth starts almost at the beginning of modern science by laying a foundation of understanding in conservation laws and fields. His explanation (supported by further information in an appendix) of the negative energy of gravitational fields is clear and intuitive. So clear are his explanations that one hardly seems surprised when Guth introduces Edward Tryon's early speculation that the universe may have originated from a quantum vacuum fluctuation.

Next, Guth develops the idea of an expanding universe, and the flatness problem. His explanation of why the flatness problem is a problem at all is concise and wonderfully illustrated. Throughout all of this, Guth offers a rare glimpse into the workings of science by showing the chaotic effects of unpredictable chance occurrences that lead to that rare insight with its attendant "ahhhh" at the end of discovery. I particularly enjoyed the photographs he included of many key players in the developments of modern cosmology, with a singular exception. There is no photograph of Guth himself [this is my only complaint about the book].

Leading up to the discussion of inflation proper, Guth offers clear and insightful discussions of the discovery of the microwave background radiation. He offers rare insights into the extraordinarily difficult measurements that led to the first discovery, culminating with the superb measurements and confirmation provided by COBE in 1990. As further preparatory information, Guth offers one of the best general-purpose science explanations I've seen for the particles in the standard model, including some very good descriptions of the Higgs particle, which plays a central role in the theory of inflation. Guth is proof that complicated theories can be reduced to simple ideas without losing the essential logical constructs that make them work.

The second half of the book deals with inflation proper. Here, Guth explains how inflation solves the flatness problem, and deals with such things as monopoles, and the nearly uniform background radiation.

The end of the book deals with the aftermath of discovery, and the problems with inflation yet to be ironed out. The author discusses many esoteric possibilities, including percolation of false-vacuum bubbles, event horizons, and pocket universes.

If the origins of the universe excite your intellectual fancy, I highly recommend "The Inflationary Universe."

Duwayne Anderson

Guth has developed a theory that would normally be impossible for one to understand. However, his writing style is both scientific history and autobiography. The book unfolds in such an easy manner that anyone who carefully reads this book can walk away with a comprehension of the most complex theories developed by cosmologists. His book takes the reader step by step from classical science through Einstein to quantum theory. His own theory of an inflationary universe is fascinating. His theory has proved to stand up over time to each problem and question that has arisen. I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in understanding how the big bang theory can be so widely accepted. It also summarizes the many interesting lives of scientists who have developed these theories. What a treasure Guth is for America!

Some very good books on science focus mainly on detailing a particular scientific discovery or discoveries. Some very good science books do their best to communicate with a general audience concerning ideas that can be highly technical. What is rarer is a science book that does both of these within the framework of what it is really like to live and work as a scientist. The amazing book The Double Helix by James Watson which describes the quest for the structure of DNA is one of these. So is this book by Alan Guth on the development of the inflationary universe theory as a "correction" to Big Bang theory.

In this book Guth takes us through the basics of the Big Bang theory and then into the idea of inflation--what it is and how it goes along with Big Bang theory. He takes a wonderful historically-developed approach and he does this without the help of (at least as far as I can recall) a single equation in the body of the text. Instead, he uses basic numerical analysis and the help of a number of graphs and illustrations to develop these complex ideas into a very readable explanation. He is also very frank in warning the reader of difficult concepts and directing the less detail-minded to skipping around.

All of this makes for a good science read; however, what I really enjoyed about this book is how he brings out the things that really drive real science, particularly when he reaches those investigations into which he was personally involved. He points out how theory and experiment drive each other. He isn't afraid to show the fights for priority and reputation that often push scientists. He lets us see how the desperation for a secure job, the cockiness of the young researcher and the ego of established names is often the engine for discovery.

Anyone interested in the current state of research into the origins of our universe would be remiss in not reading this book. Many people get the gist of Big Bang theory but fewer understand what Big Bang theory is really about and fewer still understand why the inflationary universe has become so important in recent years. This book will clear away all the fog; in particular, Guth is very clear in explaining the problems with Big Bang theory (the horizon problem, magnetic monopoles, etc.) that are cleared-up with the inflation approach.

More than this, however, the reader will gain real insight into what it is like to be a working scientist. It offers a peak at its excitements and disappoints, even a glimpse at the clashes and in-fighting. Many people often get the idea that science makes grand pronouncements of fact from on high. This book shows that science is, in reality, a continuing struggle for a more and more accurate picture of our universe and how it works. It is a view worth seeing.

I've loved to read this book, because it has this double face:
on one hand it is a very readable and fascinating popular
introduction to a piece of current research, namely inflation,
by one of its main actors, something that doesn't really
happen all too often. On the other hand, it is about the
personal story of that same actor, (A. Guth), so that one
gets a feeling of the life of a young scientist. Each
of the faces would make a good book ; here you get both in
one volume.

Big bang, inflation and slower paced expansion seem to properly describe developing stages of our visible Universe today.
This book has been completed just before science accepted "dark energy" as a main ingredient of the Universe and discovery of its current accelerating expansion.
Concept that our Universe grew very early out of rapid inflation is very successful in explaining the flatness, the large scale uniformity of space and origin of visible matter in it, but lacks direct evidence and requires huge extrapolation of laws of physics.
But, never mind: Alan Guth, internationally recognized theoretical physicist and leading actor of the Inflationary Universe theory, writes with passion about his career, mathematical intricacies leading to his proposal in 1979 and further modifications.
You will learn about life, work and personalities of many top cosmologists including father of the big bang George Gamow, master of the black holes Steven Hawking and finally Paul Stainhardt and Andrei Linde - both contributors to advanced forms of inflationary postulate. They all try to shed some light on the events taking place when Universe lasted only the tiniest fraction of a second.
Could it start from nothingness devoid of matter and space?
How about eternally existing multiverses, false vacuum and gravity having negative energy? Are we living in a very tiny corner of the much, much larger cosmos than anyone ever suspected?
Alan Guth's masterpiece represents everything in one volume: classic physics refreshing course, update on particle physics, introduction to modern theoretical cosmology, summary of knowledge derived from observing stars, galaxies and cosmic background radiation, and plans for future projects involving new satellite missions. These satellites will deliver new data and most likely confirm predictions of Inflation theory.
Overall, what I liked the most was a successful attempt to explain role of Higgs particles and very helpful 3D drawings of their energy fields. Higgs fields suppose result in certain kind of particles important for complete understanding of Standard Model of particle physics.
Do not hesitate; even now after three years since being published, "The Inflationary Universe" is still a marvelous, definitely not outdated popular science book full of surprises and mind twisting speculations.

Guth has a gift for inspiring us young physicists! Through his tale of mediocrity to discovery and greatness, Guth shows us how following through with good ideas really works in physics. "The Inflationary Universe," however, incorporates history as only a minor part of it. Guth describes the physics of a 'false vacuum,' conservation of baryon number, Higgs fields, monopoles, and many other concepts usually difficult to grasp. He shows how these ideas can give us a better and perhaps correct way of seeing the universe at its birth --- and he poses many more questions, like whether our universe is just one of many, and what the implications of that would be (as in, could it be that in different universes the laws of physics are different?). Although his explanation of 'symmetry breaking' as kind of a crystallization was disappointing, perhaps that is due not to him, but to the incomplete physics behind grand unified theories. Overall, an excellent and thought-provoking book.

The book provides a very readable account of how the study in one field has a revolutionary impact on another. The Inflationary Universe follows clearly the chronology of events that led to the formulation of the theory and frequent reference is made to diary notes that apparently were kept actual all along. Starting out with the premise that within the bounds of Grand Unified Theories the existence of magnetic monopoles is a theoretical necessity, Guth sets out to determine more accurately their characteristics and their potential abundance. All results of calculations made with a sensible set of parameters and their spread, point at a production of a high and verifiable quantity of very heavy monopoles, that in the real world around us are not observed. In an attempt to explain away the overproduction of monopoles, a study is made of the behaviour of a simplified combination of Higgs fields. Under the pressure of publishing timely the potentially positive result of the outcome of this study and confronted with the publication of similar results by a competing scientist (Preskill) Guth frantically tries to get added value to to his paper. A detailed analysis of the consequences of the decay of the Higgs fields shows an unexpected behaviour of gravity, which during the phase transition period until the decay of the false vacuum becomes repulsive, stretching space itself exponentially in the process. The concept of Inflation is born. It is only at this point that physicist Guth enters the arena of cosmology and associates the results with cosmological problems such as flatness and isotropy.
The published paper therefore addresses those issues instead of the monopole problem which was the target of the paper, even though Inflation had resolved the lack of observed monopoles as well. Triumph abounds.
In the subsequent section of the book the shortcomings of the initial inflationary theory become apparent. Those are addressed in a systematic manner and it is shown how bubbles, domains and domain walls have repercussions on the viability of the theory. It all is a matter of how the decay of the false vacuum proceeds, how the initially assumed combination of Higgs fields looks like and how the inflationary period ends.
Though personally I do not really like the numerous side steps made into the personal matters of the author, those do provide contextual inside in how revolutionary findings come about and make the book quite readable for non subject matter experts.
A book to be recommended to those seriously interested in physics and its implications for cosmology.

Truly exceptional book exceeding all my expectations. I had two concerns when I bought the book: I might be bored with most of it (I was aware that Inflationary theory itself is only about a third of the book and I was already fairly well read in cosmology) and it might be a bit outdated (prior to this book, I had just finished reading Silk's "The Big Bang" - the most up-to-date account of the theory). Yet I am glad to report that I was thoroughly proven wrong on both counts.

While two thirds of the book is an "introduction," all the topics covered are extremely relavant to inflation and cosmology in general. And although the author doesn't assume the reader has any prior knowledge of the topics he covers, they're presented in sufficient detail to complement the knowledge of most laymen, even those who are not new to cosmology. These topics include the Big Bang theory, Standard model of particle physics, Grand Unification Theories, and Higgs Fields, to name a few.

To address my second concern that the book might be outdated - it is really a non-issue. Although the Inflaitionary theories are not fully developed yet and still make up an area of active research, the general idea descibed in the book remains the same, while the details maybe beyond anyone without a phD in physics anyway.

Guth's "Inflationary Universe" is a truly enjoyabe read (even appendices in the end [on gravitational energy, blackbody radiation, and Newton's static universe] are incredibly informative). I unreservedly recommend it to anyone, but it should probably not be your first book on cosmology, as it's a bit advanced (Hawking's "Brief History of Time" is probably the best starting point).

Thanks to Dr. Guth for trying to explain the Cosmology, Theory of Inflation in simple terms. Of course it sounds simple, after all there is a whole theory behind it and this book is written in paperback without any single formula. It is a good book for popular scientist, with this book you learn a littel more about the cosmological theories which Inflation is one of them. Due to the difficulty of the subject the teacher had to go into concepts that sound simple judging from the name but extremely diffcult to comprehend.If you know about the subject and most importanatly the tools of the trade, you understand better each sentence otherwise you just get the flare of it. The book is the only as far as I know in this field written at this level as a story and especially by one of the founders of the theory, reminds me the book Hawkigns Universe, simplified very difficult concepts.