These fluctuations are visible as small temperature variations in the cosmic microwave background. They dictated the formation of stars, galaxies, and clusters billions of years later. Inflation magnified quantum uncertainty to cosmic scales, making the universe lumpy enough for structure to form. Mapping these fluctuations helps cosmologists understand inflationary physics. The pattern also tests competing models of the early universe. Quantum physics and cosmology meet spectacularly in this process.
It matters because quantum fluctuations shaped the universe’s large-scale structure.
It also allows testing theories of inflation and early-universe physics.
Quantum blips from the universe’s first moments became galaxies and stars.
Cosmology Group, University of Cambridge [cam.ac.uk]