Andrei Linde

Andrei
Linde (Russian:
; born March
RussianAmerican theoretic
the Harald Trap
Physics at Stanford
one of the main
the inflationary
well as the theory
inflation and
inflationary multiver
his Bachelor of
from Moscow State
Linde was awarded
the Lebedev
Institute in Moscow.
at CERN (Europea
Nuclear Research)
moved to the USA
became Professor
at Stanford
the various awards
his work
he was awarded
along withAlan
Guth of MIT and Pa
Steinhardt of Prince
2004 he received,
Guth, the Gruber
Cosmology for the
inflationary
received the Kavli
Astrophysics for
theory of cosmic
with Alan
Starobinsky in

Dmitriyevich

2, 1948) is a

Born

March 2, 1948 (age 67)

Moscow, Russian SFSR,
Soviet Union (now Russia)

Citizenship

American

Fields

Theoretical physics
Cosmology

Institutions

Lebedev Physical Institute

CERN
Stanford University

Alma mater

Moscow State University

Doctoral advisor

David Kirzhnits

Known for

Cosmic inflation

Notable awards

2014 Kavli Prize

2012 Fundamental Physics Prize
2004 Gruber Prize
2002 Dirac Medal
2002 Oskar Klein Medal

Spouse

Renata Kallosh

al physicistand
Friis Professor of
University. Linde is
authors of
universe theory, as
of eternal
se. He received
Science degree
University. In 1975,
a Ph.D. from
Physical
He worked
n Organization for
since 1989 and
in 1990 where he
of Physics
University. Among
he's received for
on inflation, in 2002
the Dirac Medal,
ul
ton University. In
along with Alan
Prize in
development of
cosmology. He
Prize in
pioneering the
inflation", together
Guth and Alexei
2014.

Cosmological phase transitions and old inflation

During 1972 to 1976, David Kirzhnits and Andrei Linde developed a theory of cosmological phase
transitions. According to this theory, there was not much difference
between weak, strong and electromagnetic interactions in the very early universe. These interactions
became different from each other only gradually, after the cosmological phase transitions while
the Universe expanded and cooled down. [clarify] In 1974, Linde found that the energy density of scalar
fields that break the symmetry between different interactions can play the role of the vacuum
energy density (the cosmological constant) in the Einstein equations. Between 1976 and 1978, Linde
demonstrated that the release of this energy during the cosmological phase transitions may be
sufficient to heat up the universe.
These observations became the main ingredients of the first version of the inflationary universe
theory proposed by Alan Guth in 1980. This theory, now called the "Old inflation theory",[citation needed] was
based on the assumption that the universe was initially hot. It then experienced the cosmological
phase transitions and was temporarily stuck in asupercooled metastable vacuum state (a false
vacuum). The universe then expanded exponentially "inflated" until the false vacuum decayed
and the universe became hot again. This idea attracted much attention because it could provide a
unique solution to many difficult problems of the standard Big Bang theory. In particular, it could
explain why the universe is so large and so uniform. However, as Guth immediately realized, this
scenario did not quite work as intended: the decay of the false vacuum would make the universe
extremely inhomogeneous.

New inflation
In 1981, Linde developed another version of inflationary theory which he called "New inflation".[citation
needed]

He demonstrated that the exponentially rapid expansion of the universe could occur not only in

the false vacuum but also during a slow transition away from the false vacuum. This theory resolved
the problems of the original model proposed by Guth while preserving most of its attractive features.
A few months later, a similar scenario was proposed by Andreas Albrecht and Paul Steinhardt which
referenced Linde's paper. Soon after that, it was realized that the new inflationary scenario also
suffered from some problems. Most of them arose because of the standard assumption that the
early universe initially was very hot, and inflation occurred during the cosmological phase transitions.

Chaotic inflation
In 1983, Linde abandoned some of the key principles of old and new inflation and proposed a more
general inflationary theory, chaotic inflation. Chaotic inflation occurs in a much broader class of
theories, without any need for the assumption of initial thermal equilibrium. The basic principles of
this scenario became incorporated in most of the presently existing realistic versions of inflationary

theory. Chaotic inflation changed the way we think about the beginning of inflation. Later on, Linde
also proposed a possible modification of the way in which inflation may end, by developing
the hybrid inflation scenario. In that model, inflation ends due to the "waterfall" instability

[clarification needed]

Creation of matter in the universe

According to the inflationary theory, all elementary particles in the universe emerged after the end of
inflation, in a process called reheating. The first version of the theory of reheating, which is
essentially the theory of creation of matter in the universe, was developed in 1982 by Alexander
Dolgov and Linde, and also by L.F. Abbott, Edward Farhi andMark B. Wise. In 1994, this theory was
revised by L.A. Kofman, Linde and Alexei Starobinsky. They have shown that the process of creation
of matter after inflation may be much more efficient due to the effect of parametric resonance. [clarification
needed]

Inflationary multiverse and eternal chaotic inflation

Perhaps the most far-reaching prediction made by Linde was related to what is now called the theory
of inflationary multiverse, or string theory landscape. In 1982-1983, Steinhardt, Linde and Alexander
Vilenkin realized that exponential expansion in the new inflation scenario, once it begins, continues
without end in some parts of the universe. On the basis of this scenario, Linde proposed a model of
a self-reproducing inflationary universe consisting of different parts. These parts are exponentially
large and uniform, because of inflation. Therefore, for all practical purposes each of these parts
looks like a separate mini-universe, or pocket universe, independent of what happens in other parts
of the universe.
Inhabitants of each of these parts might think that the universe everywhere looks the same, and
masses of elementary particles, as well as the laws of their interactions, must be the same all over
the world. However, in the context of inflationary cosmology, different pocket universes may have
different laws of low-energy physics operating in each of them. Thus our world, instead of being a
single spherically symmetric expanding balloon, becomes a huge fractal, an inflationary multiverse
consisting of many different pocket universes with different properties. This provided a simple
scientific interpretation of the cosmological anthropic principle: Our world may consist of different
parts, but we can live only in those parts of the multiverse which can support life as we know it.
These ideas did not attract much attention at that time, in part because the anthropic principle was
very unpopular, in part because the new inflationary scenario did not quite work and was replaced by
the chaotic inflation scenario. However, in 1986 Linde found that in many versions of the chaotic
inflation scenario, the process of exponential expansion of the universe also continues forever in
some parts of the universe. Linde called this process eternal inflation. Quantum fluctuations
produced during eternal chaotic inflation are so large that they can easily push different parts of the
universe from one vacuum state to another, and even change the

effective dimensionality of spacetime. This provided a very powerful realization of the theory of the
multiverse.

Inflation and string theory

A significant advance in this area was obtained when the theory of inflationary multiverse was
implemented in the context of string theory. In 2000, Raphael Bousso and Joseph
Polchinski proposed to use the regime of eternal inflation and transitions between many different
vacua in string theory for solving the cosmological constant problem. At that time, no stable
or metastable vacua of string theory were actually known. A possible mechanism of string theory
vacuum stabilization was proposed in 2003 by Shamit Kachru,Renata Kallosh, Linde, and Sandip
Trivedi, who also found that all of these vacua describing expanding universe are metastable, i.e.
they must eventually decay. Then Michael R. Douglas and his collaborators [clarification needed] estimated that
the total number of different stringy vacua can be as large as 10 500, or even more,[vague] and Leonard
Susskinddeveloped the string theory landscape scenario based on investigation of cosmological
phase transitions between different string theory vacua.
One of the main challenges of this theory is to find the probability to live in each of these different
parts of the universe. However, once string theory is invoked, it is extremely difficult to return to the
previous picture of a single universe. In order to do so, one would need to prove that only one of the
many vacua of string theory is actually possible, and to propose an alternative solution of the many
problems which can be solved by using the anthropic cosmological principle in the context of the
theory of inflationary multiverse.[clarification needed]
At present[when?], Linde is continuing his work on the theory of inflationary multiverse. He is also
working on the development of advanced versions of inflationary theory based on string theory
and supergravity, which should be flexible enough to properly describe a vast amount of new and
upcoming cosmological observational data.

[according to whom?]

Honors and awards

In July 2012, Linde was an inaugural awardee of the Fundamental Physics Prize, the creation of
physicist and internet entrepreneur Yuri Milner.[1] In 2014, he was a co-recipient, with Alan Guth
and Alexei Starobinsky, of the Kavli Prize awarded by the Norwegian Academy of Science and
Letters.[2]
Linde is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and of the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences.

Personal life
Linde is married to Renata Kallosh. They have two sons.[3]

References
1.
2.
3.

Jump up^ New annual US$3 million Fundamental Physics Prize recognizes transformative
advances in the field, FPP, accessed 1 August 2012.
Jump up^ "Nine Scientists Share Three Kavli Prizes".
Jump up^ "Renata Kallosh". UCLA. Retrieved March 17, 2014.