Related papers: How many universes are in the multiverse?
The existence of initial singularities in expanding universes is proved without assuming the timelike convergence condition. The assumptions made in the proof are ones likely to hold both in open universes and in many closed ones. (It is…
Cosmic inflation is envisioned as the ``most likely'' start for the observed universe. To give substance to this claim, a framework is needed in which inflation can compete with other scenarios and the relative likelihood of all scenarios…
Absolute combinatorial game theory was recently developed as a unifying tool for constructive/local game comparison (Larsson et al. 2018). The theory concerns {\em parental universes} of combinatorial games; standard closure properties are…
This paper explores the fundamental causal limits on how much of the universe we can observe or affect. It distinguishes four principal regions: the affectable universe, the observable universe, the eventually observable universe, and the…
We discuss the effect of the quantum fluctuations at high energies on the final shape of compact extra dimensions. The quantum fluctuations produce a wide range of the initial extra metrics in causally disconnected regions (pocket…
We compute the distribution of sizes of inflating and non-inflating regions in an eternally inflating Universe. As a first illustrative problem, we study a simple scenario of an eternally inflating Universe in the presence of a massless…
We study the statistical mechanics of the early radiation dominated universe in the context of a generalized uncertainty principle which supports the existence of a minimal length scale. Utilizing the resultant modified thermodynamical…
We introduce a novel correlation, $n_s$ - $\Delta N$, connecting CMB parameters to the required total e-folds for eternal inflation. This correlation provides a robust tool for evaluating eternal (string) inflation models using CMB data and…
We perform a general analysis of the cosmological viability of Geometric Inflation. We show that the evolution of the universe, from inflation to the present day, can be seen from the addition of an infinite tower of curvature invariants…
Cosmological observations have provided us with the measurement of just three numbers that characterize the very early universe: $ 1-n_{s} $, $ N $ and $\ln\Delta_R^2$. Although each of the three numbers individually carries limited…
The inflationary scenario has become the paradigm of early universe cosmology, and - in conjuction with ideas from superstring theory - has led to speculations about an "inflationary multiverse". From a point of view of phenomenology, the…
Anthropic reasoning often begins with the premise that we should expect to find ourselves typical among all intelligent observers. However, in the infinite universe predicted by inflation, there are some civilizations which have spread…
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…
We show that in the case of positively-curved Friedmann-Lema\^{\i}tre universes $(k=+1)$, an inflationary period in the early universe will for most initial conditions not solve the horizon problem, no matter how long inflation lasts. It…
The swampland conjectures from string theory have had some really interesting implications on cosmology, in particular on inflationary models. Some models of inflation have been shown to be incompatible with these criterion while some have…
It has been suggested that the no boundary proposal would predict little or no slow roll inflation leading to an empty deSitter universe. However it is argued that the probability for the whole universe should be multiplied by a zero mode…
The four-form field recently considered by Hawking and Turok couples naturally to a charged membrane, across which the effective cosmological constant has a discontinuity. We present instantons for the creation of an open inflationary…
We study the distance-redshift relation in a universe filled with point particles, and discuss what the universe looks like when we make the number of particles N very large, while fixing the averaged mass density. Using the Raychaudhuri…
``Constants of Nature'' and cosmological parameters may in fact be variables related to some slowly-varying fields. In models of eternal inflation, such fields will take different values in different parts of the universe. Here I show how…
To compute the spectrum of bubble collisions seen by an observer in an eternally-inflating multiverse, one must choose a measure over the diverging spacetime volume, including choosing an "initial" hypersurface below which there are no…