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Letter

Nature Physics 4, 46–49 (1 January 2008) | doi:10.1038/nphys815

Relic topological defects from brane annihilation simulated in superfluid 3He

D. I. Bradley , S. N. Fisher , A. M. Gu|[eacute]|nault , R. P. Haley , J. Kopu , H. Martin , G. R. Pickett , J. E. Roberts & V. Tsepelin

Although it is widely accepted that to resolve the |[lsquo]|horizon|[rsquo]| problem the early Universe must have undergone a sudden expansion (cosmic inflation), what mechanism drove this process is less clear. In the braneworld scenario, it is suggested that inflationary epochs may have been initiated and terminated by brane collisions and annihilations.