> My question is: David's response focused on the issue of curvature. But
> what about other matters such as the values of physical constants, masses of
> elementary particles, relative strengths of forces, etc. Are these dependent
> on inflation? What governs their values? To what extent do they depend on
> initial conditions?
No. These other constants are *not* determined by inflation. With inflation
the details of the elementary particle physics influence the cosmological
properties (i.e. curvature, expansion rate, large scale homogeneity, etc.),
not the other way around. The fine-tuning of the parameters of particle
physics at some level needed for us to exist are determined by the deeper
(more fundamental) level theories. The supposedly unique TOE superstring
theory is conjectured to determine the constants of the correct GUT and
General Relativity. (Whether or not the proper values of these constants
are obtained or not is uncertain due to the intractability of the
superstring theory). The correct GUT (once it is found) and the previous
results from the TOE determine the constants of the standard model. The
standard model along with other results inherited from the GUT and the TOE
determine the constants for nuclear physics and for chemistry. So ultimately
everything depends on the intractable TOE. I don't think essentially any of
these constants are supposedly dependent on prior (in the logical sense)
conditions. Things like the dimension, signature, compactification scheme,
and topology of spacetime, the kinds of particles allowed, the particle
masses, the coupling strengths for the various interactions, the particle
spins, the detailed group theoretical structure of the various types of
interactions, etc. should all be determined by the TOE if and when it is
found. Again, because the calculations are so difficult it may not be
possible to extract the theoretical predictions for these values from the
TOE in practice.
David Bowman
Georgetown College
dbowman@gtc.georgetown.ky.us