Quantum Instability of the Emergent Universe
High Energy Physics - Theory
2013-11-20 v2 Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
Abstract
We perform a semi-classical analysis of the Emergent Universe scenario for inflation. Fixing the background, and taking the inflaton to be homogenous, we cast the inflaton's evolution as a one-dimensional quantum mechanics problem. We find that the tuning required over a long time scale for this inflationary scenario is unstable quantum mechanically. Considering the inflaton field value as a wavepacket, the spreading of the wavepacket destroys any chance of both starting and ending with a well-formed state. Thus, one cannot have an Einstein static universe to begin with that evolves into a well-defined beginning to inflation a long time later.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1306.3232,
title = {Quantum Instability of the Emergent Universe},
author = {Anthony Aguirre and John Kehayias},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1306.3232},
year = {2013}
}
Comments
7 pages; v2: very minor changes, matches version published in PRD