Koberinski, Adam and Smeenk, Chris (2024) Establishing a theory of inflationary cosmology. [Preprint]
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Abstract
Inflation remains a promising, yet speculative, account of structure formation in the early universe. In this paper, we provide a general account of what is needed to establish a speculative theory, and apply the account to inflation. Particular challenges for inflation are its flexibility as a phenomenological framework, and the lack of empirical access to test seemingly independent features of specific realizations of inflation. This makes it difficult to leverage initial empirical successes to learn further physical details about the inflationary epoch. One prima facie appealing response is to treat phenomenological accounts of inflation as effective field theories (EFTs), screening off details of higher-energy physics. We argue that inflation is a poor fit into the EFT framework due to its sensitivity to high-energy physics. We close by stating specific recommendations to take steps towards establishing inflation as part of a theory of the early universe that follow from our approach.
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| Item Type: | Preprint | |||||||||
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| Additional Information: | Forthcoming in British Journal for Philosophy of Science | |||||||||
| Keywords: | Cosmology; Effective field theory; Theory construction | |||||||||
| Subjects: | Specific Sciences > Physics > Cosmology Specific Sciences > Physics General Issues > Theory Change |
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| Depositing User: | Dr. Adam Koberinski | |||||||||
| Date Deposited: | 23 Oct 2024 17:45 | |||||||||
| Last Modified: | 23 Oct 2024 17:45 | |||||||||
| Item ID: | 24102 | |||||||||
| Subjects: | Specific Sciences > Physics > Cosmology Specific Sciences > Physics General Issues > Theory Change |
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| Date: | 2024 | |||||||||
| URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/24102 |
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