Can you give me a link to that thread? I can't seem to find it.
For the record, I just spoke with Burt Ovrut, one of the pioneers of the Ekpyrotic theory. He was surprised by that assertion, and expressed deep skepticism that CMB polarization would be calculable in such models as they now stand. They are still in their infancy, whereas inflationary models are very well understood.
It was a few months back; I'll try to find it. I'm quite sure the statement about CMB polarization falsifying the Ekpyrotic Model was either in the article that was posted, or in something I found somewhere on the web. Perhaps the characterization was hasty....
To: PatrickHenry; Physicist; ThinkPlease; RadioAstronomer; aBootes
From your first link:
The remaining possibility is the detection of optical polarization in the cosmic microwave background radiation induced by long wavelength gravity-wave effects. If such polarization were detected, it would tend to support inflationary cosmology and to falsify ekpyrotic cosmology. However, no such polarization has yet been observed.[emphasis added]
So, the observation reported in the original article not only suppports inflationary Cosmology, it falsifies the ekpyrotic alternative.
Yet another piece of the Cosmic puzzle appears to have fallen in place......
17 posted on 09/21/2002 4:25 PM EDT by longshadow
I'm quoting something from PH's link in the reply immediately above the the one shown above.
Perhaps they overstated the case for falsifying the Ekpyrotic Model.
Don't shoot me; I'm just the messenger!