What is the “C-field” theory of matter creation?
Astrophysicist Fred Hoyle postulated the “C-field” theory which offers an explanation for the appearance of new matter with the existence of the so called “creation field”. It had negative pressure in order to be consistent with the conservation of energy and drive the expansion of the universe. These features of the C-field anticipated the later development of cosmic inflation. They jointly argued that the continuous creation was no more inexplicable than the appearance of the entire universe from nothing, although it had to be done on a regular basis. For this reason the steady state incorporates many features that later emerged in both inflationary cosmology and the accelerating universe, which may be modeled in terms of a cosmological constant in Einstein’s model of the universe. The observed evidence convinced cosmologists that the steady state theory was incorrect and Big Bang was the theory that fitted best with observations. The refutation of the steady-state theory came with t