We discuss here a not very well advertised problem afflicting the standard inflationary account of the origin of structure in the universe as the result of the, so called, quantum fluctuations of the inflaton field. We will show that such account is based on the properties of a quantum state that is homogeneous and isotropic, and that there is in the usual proposal no explanation for the emergence of inhomogeneities and anisotropies through a dynamics that preserves those symmetries in the quantum state. We will see that the issue can be seen as connected with the measurement problem in quantum mechanics, an unsatisfactory conceptual aspect of current quantum theory, which becomes intractable in the cosmological context at hand. We will see that one can address the issue adding the assumption that a new, and fundamental process in physics plays an essential role in this situation, (and naturally in other situations as well), and that unlike other cases, the cosmological problem at hand offers a path to investigate under empirical guidance some of the characteristics of this new physics.
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