Breakdown of Current Physical Laws?
Since we do not yet have a
consistent wedding of general relativity with quantum mechanics,
the presently understood laws of physics may be expected
to break down on the Planck scale.
Therefore, our standard picture of inflation followed by the big bang
says nothing about the Universe at those very early
times (which would precede inflation).
In this respect then, we are absolutely certain that our currently understood laws of
physics are not complete. However, the Planck scale is so incredibly small that
this presumably only had meaning in the initial instants of the creation of the
Universe. In the right panel we address the issue of whether this means that
modern science should even be concerned with the Planck scale.