English

Origin of the inflationary Universe

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2009-10-31 v1

Abstract

We give a consistent description of how the inflationary Universe emerges in quantum cosmology. This involves two steps: Firstly, it is shown that a sensible probability peak can be obtained from the cosmological wave function. This is achieved by going beyond the tree level of the semiclassical expansion. Secondly, due to decoherence interference terms between different semiclassical branches are negligibly small. The results give constraints on the particle content of a unified theory.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.gr-qc/9905098,
  title  = {Origin of the inflationary Universe},
  author = {A. Barvinsky and A. Kamenshchik and C. Kiefer},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:gr-qc/9905098},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

LATEX, 6 pages, selected for honorable mention in the 1999 Essay Competition of the Gravity Research Foundation. To appear in Mod. Phys. Lett. A