Planck 2015 results. XX. Constraints on inflation

We present the implications for cosmic inflation of the Planck measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies in both temperature and polarization based on the full Planck survey. The Planck full mission temperature data and a first release of polarization data on large angular scales measure the spectral index of curvature perturbations to be n s = 0.968 ± 0.006 and tightly constrain its scale dependence to dn s /dlnk = −0.003 ± 0.007 when combined with the Planck lensing likelihood. When the high-ℓ polarization data is included, the results are consistent and uncertainties are reduced. The upper bound on the tensor-to-scalar ratio is r 0.002 <0.11 (95% CL), consistent with the B-mode polarization constraint r<0.12 (95% CL) obtained from a joint BICEP2/Keck Array and Planck analysis. These results imply that V(ϕ)∝ϕ 2 and natural inflation are now disfavoured compared to models predicting a smaller tensor-to-scalar ratio, such as R 2 inflation. Three independent methods reconstructing the primordial power spectrum are investigated. The Planck data are consistent with adiabatic primordial perturbations. We investigate inflationary models producing an anisotropic modulation of the primordial curvature power spectrum as well as generalized models of inflation not governed by a scalar field with a canonical kinetic term. The 2015 results are consistent with the 2013 analysis based on the nominal mission data

A Complexity Thinking Take on Thinking in the University

Universities are explicitly sites of thinking: they present myriad ways to think – and to provoke thinking. We address thinking relationally, that is, by doing it under provocation – it is in the doing of thinking that our learning emerges. In this chapter, we develop the significance of this ‘learning thinking by doing thinking’ to which Heidegger, in What is Called Thinking (1954) draws attention, and we do so by setting out a contemporary account of complexity. First, we provide a theorisation of complexity, which comes across from the natural sciences to the social sciences, though in a somewhat different form. Secondly, we put this theorisation to work, in raising some challenges and opportunities for re-thinking thinking for universities, by tackling some of the big issues facing learning in universities. These include excessive individualism, narrow cognitivism and an emaciated notion of learners’ agency, all of which under-acknowledge the formative power of groups, especially for shaping subsequent professional practice broadly conceived. We close with some practical implications for universities’ core work of this complexity thinking ‘take’ on thinking. We advocate ‘thinking relationally’ as central and indeed constitutive of universities. strengths of this internalist view, limited as it may be. The thinking university may &nbsp;..