Growing doubts about evidence for ancient gravitational waves don't undermine cosmic inflation, says the theory's co-founder Andrei Linde – and don't let feelings obscure science
Would the detection of gravitational waves from just after the big bang finally prove your theory of cosmic inflation?
If primordial gravitational waves were indeed detected by the BICEP2 telescope, they almost certainly would have been generated just after the big bang. But the media hyped this as the first evidence for inflation. That just isn't true: there has been a lot of independent support. I don't like the way gravitational waves are being treated as a smoking gun.