Next Contents Previous  5. How Does Inflation Produce All the
Structure in the Universe?  In our Universe quantum fluctuations
have been expanded into the largest structures we observe and
clouds of hydrogen have collapsed to form kangaroos. The larger
end of this hierarchical range of structure - the range
controlled by gravity, not chemistry, is what inflation is
supposed to explain.  Inflation produces structure because
quantum mechanics, not classical mechanics describes the
Universe in which we live. The seeds of structure, quantum
fluctuations, do not exist in a classical world. If the world
were classical, there would be no clumps or balls to populate
classical mechanics textbooks. Inflation dilutes everything -
all preexisting structure. It empties the Universe of anything
that may have existed before, except quantum fluctuations. These
it can't dilute. These then become the seeds of who we are.  One
of the most important questions in cosmology is: What is the
origin of all the galaxies, clusters, gre