RIPPLES in the faint afterglow of the big bang do not seem to be scattered as randomly as expected. This casts doubt on the theory of inflation, a cornerstone of modern cosmology.
According to the theory, space expanded violently a split second after the big bang. That ought to mean that the properties of hot and cold spots in the microwave background left over from the big bang should follow a Gaussian distribution, because the spots would have started off as random quantum fluctuations.
But when David Larson and Benjamin Wandelt of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign looked at data from NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), they found a subtle but statistically significant deviation from a Gaussian distribution.
The pattern could turn out to be a glitch in WMAP's instruments. But if it is a real feature of the early universe, then its origin is a complete mystery, says Wandelt. He cannot even speculate at what process could have caused these deviations. The second year's worth of WMAP data, which may be released this summer, should help to clarify this tentative result.
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