Cosmology situation

[jacobnavia]

http://aeon.co/magazine/science/has-cosmology-run-into-a-creative-crisis/

Steinhardt was one of the first high-profile physicists to question
BICEP2's findings in public. In a column for Nature last June, he said
that the team's analysis was seriously flawed. Few cosmologists were
surprised. Steinhardt is inflationary theory's most vocal critic, and
has been for years. But perhaps critic is the wrong word. Apostate might
be better, for Steinhardt was present at inflation's birth. You might
even say he midwifed it.

'The last 30 years is a very unusual period in the history of
fundamental physics and cosmology,' Steinhardt told me. 'There's
confusion, and maybe even a certain amount of fear. People are wedded to
these ideas, because they grew up with them. Scientists don't like to
change ideas unless they're forced to. They get involved with a theory.
They get emotionally attached to it. When an idea is looking shaky, they
go into defensive mode. If you're working on something besides
inflation, you find yourself outside the social network, and you don't
get many citations. Only a few brave souls are willing to risk that.'

I teased Steinhardt, pointing out that he hadn't exactly been hauled
before the Inquisition. Steinhardt is fully tenured, a lion of
Princeton's storied physics department. He walks the same leafy streets
that Albert Einstein walked. Indeed, his official title at Princeton is
Albert Einstein Professor in Science. Still, he feels overmatched. He
told me he has asked for help from outside the field.

'The outside community isn't recognising the problem,' he said. 'This
whole BICEP2 thing has made some people more aware of it. It's been nice
to have that aired out. But most people give us too much respect. They
think we know what we're doing. They take too seriously these voices
that say inflation is established theory.'

[Phillip Helbig (undress to reply)]

In article <mj0el6$doq$1...@dont-email.me>, jacobnavia

<ja...@jacob.remcomp.fr> writes:

> Steinhardt was one of the first high-profile physicists to question
> BICEP2's findings in public. In a column for Nature last June, he said
> that the team's analysis was seriously flawed. Few cosmologists were
> surprised. Steinhardt is inflationary theory's most vocal critic, and
> has been for years. But perhaps critic is the wrong word. Apostate might
> be better, for Steinhardt was present at inflation's birth. You might
> even say he midwifed it.

In this respect (criticism of BICEP2), Steinhardt is mainstream. Yes,
the BICEP2 folks, perhaps because of a belief in inflation, were too
quick in making their claim. By the same token, Steinhardt might be too
quick to criticize because of his disbelief in inflation. OK, this time
he was right.

> 'The last 30 years is a very unusual period in the history of
> fundamental physics and cosmology,' Steinhardt told me. 'There's
> confusion, and maybe even a certain amount of fear. People are wedded to
> these ideas, because they grew up with them. Scientists don't like to
> change ideas unless they're forced to. They get involved with a theory.
> They get emotionally attached to it. When an idea is looking shaky, they
> go into defensive mode. If you're working on something besides
> inflation, you find yourself outside the social network, and you don't
> get many citations. Only a few brave souls are willing to risk that.'

This is true to some extent. On the other hand, inflation itself was
once a radical idea, and now it is mainstream. The same goes for "dark
energy" and "dark matter". Most people, though, get involved with a
theory because of specific reasons, and it of course should take strong
reasons for them to abandon it in favour of something else. And I'm
sure that Steinhardt is rather passionate about his own new ideas.

> 'The outside community isn't recognising the problem,' he said. 'This
> whole BICEP2 thing has made some people more aware of it. It's been nice
> to have that aired out. But most people give us too much respect. They
> think we know what we're doing. They take too seriously these voices
> that say inflation is established theory.'

He's exaggerating a bit here. Roger Penrose has long been a critic of
inflation. Andreas Albrecht, another "midwife", has also recently
pointed out conceptual problems with inflation. These aren't some
obscure folks, but rather recognized leaders in the field.