Related papers: Future Foam
Bousso's entropy bound is a conjecture that the entropy through a null hypersurface emanating from a two-dimensional surface with a nonpositive expansion is bounded by the area of that two-dimensional surface. We investigate the validity of…
This thesis explores the thermodynamics of the cosmological horizon, aiming to make progress towards a better understanding of the microscopic nature of its entropy. We utilise the constrained nature of low-dimensional gravity to do so and…
We consider non-perturbative superpotentials from world-sheet instantons wrapped on holomorphic genus zero curves in heterotic string theory. These superpotential contributions feature prominently in moduli stabilization and large field…
We present a natural scenario for obtaining an open universe ($\Omega _0<1$) through inflation. In this scenario, there are two epochs of inflationary expansion---an epoch of `old inflation,' during which the inflaton field is stuck in a…
The scope of this Ph.D thesis is to study the effects of the presence of a boundary from a Quantum Field Theoretical perspective, searching for new physics and explanations of observed phenomena. In particular, thanks to the formal QFT…
We show that the notion of a black hole mass could be superceded by that of a topological charge in a spacetime without matter and curvature singularity. This feature emerges through a set new spacetime solutions of first order gravity in…
We demonstrate a novel mechanism for the formation of topological defects in a first order phase transition for theories in the presence of small explicit symmetry breaking terms. We carry out numerical simulations of collisions of two…
The eternal inflation problem continues to be considered one of standard's cosmology most serious shortcomings. This arises when one considers the effects of "quantum fluctuations" (QF) on the zero mode of inflaton field during a Hubble…
We calculate the probability distribution for the volume of the Universe after slow-roll inflation both in the eternal and in the non-eternal regime. Far from the eternal regime the probability distribution for the number of e-foldings,…
Under certain circumstances, the collision of magnetic monopoles, topologically locked-in regions of false vacuum, leads to topological inflation and the creation of baby universes. The future evolution of initial data represented by the…
We consider the dynamics of timelike spherical thin matter shells in vacuum. A general formalism for thin shells matching two arbitrary spherical spacetimes is derived, and subsequently specialized to the vacuum case. We first examine the…
We investigate the validity of the assertion that eternal inflation populates the landscape of string theory. We verify that bubble solutions do not satisfy the Klein Gordon equation for the landscape potential. Solutions to the landscape…
A four-dimensional universe, arising from a flux compactification of Type IIB string theory, contains scalar fields with a potential determined by topological and geometric parameters of the internal -hidden- dimensions. We show that…
We consider the possibility of a past and future eternal universe, constructing geodesically complete inflating, loitering, and bouncing spacetimes. We identify the constraints energy conditions in General Relativity place on the building…
We revisit an inflationary scenario in which primordial inhomogeneities arise from a quantum collapse, a stochastic mechanism described in the context of quantum collapse theories in its continuous version and within semiclassical gravity.…
We consider non-chiral symmetry-protected topological phases of matter in two spatial dimensions protected by a discrete symmetry such as $\mathbb{Z}_K$ or $\mathbb Z_K \times \mathbb Z_K $ symmetry. We argue that modular…
In common relativistic models of gravitational collapse, the interior experiences a bubble-like local inflation, allowing radii to diverge rather than converge toward a singularity. This proves a conjecture of Shatskiy. At the horizon, the…
A primordial inflationary phase allows one to erase any possible anisotropic expansion thanks to the cosmic no-hair theorem. If there is no global anisotropic stress, then the anisotropic expansion rate tends to decrease. What are the…
We propose a geometrical model of brane inflation where inflation is driven by the flux generated by opposing brane charges and terminated by the collision of the branes, with charge annihilation. We assume the collision process is…
Nonlinear electrodynamics with two dimensional parameters is studied. The range of electromagnetic fields when principles of causality, unitarity and the classical stability hold, are obtained. A singularity of the electric field at the…