An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics

A problem concerning the compatibility of grand unified theories (→ GUTs) with standard cosmology. If standard cosmology was combined with grand unified theories, far too many → magnetic monopoles would have been produced in the early Universe. The → inflation hypothesis aims at
explaining the observed scarcity of monopoles. The inflation has deceased their density by a huge factor.

See also: → magnetic; → monopole; → problem.