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»Inflation and the String Theory Landscape« lautete der Titel des Vortrages, den Alan H. Guth vom Massachusetts Institute of Technology am Montag, dem 21. April 2008 um 17 Uhr im Großen Hörsaal für Experimentalphysik hielt. Den Inhalt seiner Präsentation beschreibt der Erfinder der Theorie vom inflationären Universum mit folgenden Worten:
»After a quick review of how inflation works, I will discuss some of the key features of our universe that suggest that it emerged from a period of inflation: its uniformity, its near-critical mass density, and the spectrum of density perturbations that is now observed in the cosmic microwave background radiation. I will then turn to the biggest outstanding mystery in cosmology: the value of the cosmological constant, or equivalently the energy density of the vacuum. Nobody understands why it is so small. One controversial explanation starts with the claim that string theory offers a colossal number of vacuum states, with varying energy densities. If inflation can populate all of these vacua, and life evolves only in vacua with small energy densities, then the mystery might be solved. I will argue that this explanation is logically sound, but I will stop short of claiming that it is right.«
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