Creating a Universe from Nothing as an Alternative to the Cosmological Principle
Abstract
In the cosmological Robertson-Walker geometry required of the cosmological principle both the Weyl tensor and the Bach tensor vanish. In general, in perturbations around the cosmological background neither of the fluctuating or would vanish. However, it is possible for to vanish even as does not. In this paper we construct an explicit model in which this is the case. The model consists of a 3-tensor gravitational wave fluctuating around a background with a constant negative 3-curvature. The model is exactly solvable and consists purely of geometric quantities with no matter fields at all (i.e., , , , , where is the Einstein tensor). The model can thus be created out of nothing, with creating a universe from nothing thus being an alternative principle to the cosmological principle. The fluctuating gravitational wave contributes to the temperature anisotropy in the cosmic microwave background and its mode polarization in a calculable manner, one for which we provide a simple analytic way of treating spatial modes that is based on the use of a spatial mode addition theorem. In addition, we provide a treatment of the anisotropy that is based on properties of bandwidth limited functions. Classically by ``nothing" we mean that there are no or matter field terms. Quantum-mechanically by ``nothing" we mean that all fields other than the gravitational field are in a negative energy mode vacuum state, with the only occupied positive energy modes being graviton modes. As well as use the Bach tensor as a diagnostic, we consider dynamics based on it.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2508.02756,
title = {Creating a Universe from Nothing as an Alternative to the Cosmological Principle},
author = {Philip D. Mannheim and Daniel A. Norman and Tianye Liu},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2508.02756},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
26 pages, 8 figures, Extended appendix added