Guth: inflationary universe and the horizon and flatness problems

What changed

Proposed exponential early expansion to address horizon and flatness, while identifying exit difficulties.

Scientific scope

The record is Guth's sole-author 1981 Physical Review D paper. It includes the original scenario's acknowledged graceful-exit difficulty and does not absorb later slow-roll models, observational tests or inflationary cosmology as a whole.

Evidence

The linked sources identify this contribution and its scope. WRS has not independently reconstructed the scientific claims. The record is Guth's sole-author 1981 Physical Review D paper. It includes the original scenario's acknowledged graceful-exit difficulty and does not absorb later slow-roll models, observational tests or inflationary cosmology as a whole.

Contributors

• Alan H. Guth · SCIENCE: Named source author of the scoped work; individual effort shares are not measured.

• APS page for Inflationary Universe
• University-hosted full text of Guth inflation paper

Provisional WRS assessment, edition 2026-10-16.1. Independent expert calibration is pending. This grade does not certify correctness or assign ownership.

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