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Cliff Burgess McGill A recent controversy has developed as to whether or not the effects of trans-Planckian physics could be observed in the temperature fluctuations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation. Several authors (Rob Brandenberger, Brian Greene, and others) claim effects which are observable, while others (Steve Shenker and collaborators) claim general effective lagrangian arguments preclude contributions which are larger than H2/M2, and so are unobservable. If they are visible, trans-Planckian fluctuations could undermine the comparison of inflationary predictions with obersvations, by introducing an incalculable but large contribution. This talk summarizes a controllable calculation of how high-energy particles contribute to the CMB during inflation, and shows that we may live in the best of all possible worlds: inflationary predictions can sensibly be compared with observations even though some high energy effects can leave their imprint on the CMB (and so should be searched for).
Tuesday, November 12th 2002, 13:00 |