Dark inflation opens up a gravitational window on the first moments after the Big Bang

Dark matter and dark energy may have driven inflation, the exponential expansion of the universe moments after the Big Bang. A new cosmological model proposed by physicists at the University of Warsaw, which accounts for dark inflation, is the first to outline a precise chronology of the main events during the early history of our universe. The model makes a spectacular prediction—that it should be possible to detect gravitational waves formed just fractions of a second after the creation of spacetime.