The Effects of Inflation within Baryonic Matter.

In this contribution, the notion that inflation acts on matter only at cosmological length scales is challenged. The generalization of expansion to microscopic length scales put forth here contrast with the currently accept notion that expansion effects only large, massive celestial structures (e.g., galaxies and galaxy clusters) over vast regions of space. The effects of inflation operating on microscopic scales (within both isolated atoms and condensed matter) are examined. The growth of isolated hydrogen atoms due to inflation is examined using a non-relativistic quantum mechanical model. The model predicts that with time, the unperturbed atom is put into a superposition state possessing an energy greater than that of the ground state. The evolving superposition state is predicted to radiatively relax to the ground state within ~105 s after it is formed, with a distribution of radiofrequency emission peaking at ∼275 Hz. Extension of this conjecture to expansion within stellar matter is considered using a thermodynamic analysis. It is predicted that expansion within the Sun produces power amounting to ~3% to its total luminosity. The results presented here suggest that expansion on the microscopic scale may have important consequences in astrophysics and cosmology as well as in theoretical atomic and particle physics where length is assumed to be a time-independent variable. In particular, understanding the effects of expansion on the properties and behavior of fundamental particles may require modifications of some aspects of quantum chromodynamics, the theory underpinning the Standard Model.