Did Dark Matter Help Supersize the Universe?

Scientists propose that cosmic inflation, the universe's dramatic expansion in its first fraction of a second, may have been "warm" rather than cold. New research shows this warm inflation could arise naturally from interactions within physics' Standard Model, specifically between an inflaton field and gluons that carry the strong nuclear force. This theory eliminates the need for a mysterious "reheating" phase and could be tested through cosmic microwave background surveys and laboratory searches for axion particles.