3. Our being close to the solution ofthe problem is out of the question.
READING (8A)
• Read the passage and answer these two questions:
1. What does the Universe look like according to the chaotic inflation hypothesis?
2. What cosmological problems does this hypothesis account for?
CHAOTIC INFLATION
Like all inflationary scenarios, chaotic inflation removes the monopole problem. No new monopolcs arc created after the inflation, so any that originaliy existed arc separated from one another by an amount in proportion to the magnitude of the exponential increase in the size of the Universe. The i ntc -tor of each domain looks like a mini-Universe with a typical size greater than the distance we can see. UP cm, and for all practical purposes ourdomain is the Universe. But according to this scenario there arc many such mini-Universes separated from each other by domain walls in which the scalar fields take different values and in which, therefore, different laws ot'ohys'cs operate. We live in a domain in which the interactions just happen to have been broken into the strong and weak forces and elcctromagnetism. This has clearly influenced the development of life as well as the evolution of the Universe as we know it, and life of our type may be impossible in other aomains with different laws of physics.
The division of the Universe into many mini-Universes also makes it possible to suggest an answer to the question of why our space is three-dimensional. The process of compactification (shrinking and rolling up of some of the original dimensions) may occur differently in domains that are far enough apart from one another. And, once again, life, as we know it, may only exist in those domains which are three-dimensional. The physicist Paul 'ihrenfest pointed out, as long ago as 1917, that the threc-dimcnsienality of space is intimately connected with the way matter behaves.
Both gravitational and electromagnetic forces obey inverse square laws in our Universe and by generalizing the equations that describe these interactions and solving them in other dimensions mathematicians have shown that in space with n dimensions the result is always an n— 1 power law. In four dimensions, the laws would both be inverse cubes and, it turns out, there would be no stable orbits for cither planets in solar systems or electrons in atoms. The same is true for all higher dimensions. In a two-dimensional Universe, tilings are no better, because n— 1 is 1, and neither gravity nor elcctromagnetism is affected by distance at all. So atoms and planetary systems may only exist together in a domain with three dimensions of space, like our domain of the Universe. Sothc chaotic inflation scenario provides a simple solution to most of the problems with the standard big bang model.
The inflationary Universe scenario is now only five years old, and is still rapidly changing and developing as new ideas come to the fore. We do not know which part of the scenario will survive even for the next five years. But already it has proved able to solve about ten major cosmological problems in one simple model. Ideas which would have sounded like fantastic science-fiction only a decade ago, such as the creation of all the matter in the observable Universe (I0-" tons) by gravitational forces operating inside a domain which originally contained less than 10s g of matter and was less than 10"" cm across, now seem to be necessary ingredients in any complete theory of the Universe.
And how long did all that activity take? 1 have saved the most startling fact until last. The phase of exponential inflation that is critical to our modern understanding of the Universe probably lasted for less than 10'30 seconds.
• Look through the passage and find English equivalents for the following Russian phrases.
достаточно далеко отстоять друг от друга; подчиняться закону обратных квадратов; степенной закон; то же справедливо и для; ситуация не лучше и для; по мере выдвижения новых идей; дает простое решение; являются, по-видимому, необходимыми составляющими; поразительный факт; принимают различные значения; для решающего (переломного) понимания
• Match each word in A with its synonym in B.
A. 1. to survive; 2. ingredient; 3. to startle; 4. to shrink; 5. true
B. a) component; b) to astonish; c) to remain alive; d) to contract;
e)exact
• Match each word in A with its antonym in B.
A. 1. to stop; 2. to shrink; 3. far apart from; 4. slow; 5. true; 6. inverse;
7. to survive
B. a) direct; b) to expand; c) rapid; d) next to; c) false; 0 to die; g) to
last
• Answer the following questions using the information from the text or any other sources.