Related papers: Cosmic Initial Conditions for a Habitable Universe
Early JWST observations have revealed the ubiquitous presence in the early Universe, up to z about 16, of extreme baryon concentrations, namely forming globular clusters, extremely dense galaxies that may or may not be UV bright, and…
Current observations of Type Ia supernovae provide evidence for cosmic acceleration out to a redshift of $z \lsim 1$, leading to the possibility that the universe is entering an inflationary epoch. However, inflation can take place only if…
Eternal inflation predicts our observable universe lies within a bubble (or pocket universe) embedded in a volume of inflating space. The interior of the bubble undergoes inflation and standard cosmology, while the bubble walls expand…
In a multiverse setting, we expect to be situated in a universe that is exceptionally good at producing life. Though the conditions for what life needs to arise and thrive are currently unknown, many will be tested in the coming decades.…
Observational cosmology is in its "golden age" with a vast amount of recent data on the distribution of matter and light in the universe. This data can be used to probe theories of the very early universe. It is small amplitude cosmological…
We investigate the circumstances under which cosmic inflation can arise from very inhomogeneous initial conditions using numerical relativity simulations. Previous studies have not considered cases with non-zero momentum density due to…
In this letter, we argue that the past of the Universe, extrapolated from standard physics and measured cosmological parameters, might be a non-singular bounce. We also show that, in this framework, quite stringent constraints can be put on…
There are many indications that ordinary matter represents only a tiny fraction of the matter content of the Universe, with the remainder assumed to consist of some different type of matter, which, for various reasons must be nonluminous…
Motivated by recent developments in inflationary cosmology indicating the possibility of obtaining genuinely open universes in some models, we compare the predictions of cold dark matter (CDM) models in open universes with a variety of…
Inflation with an inflection point potential is a popular model for producing primordial black holes. The potential near the inflection point is approximately flat, with a local maximum next to a local minimum, prone to eternal inflation.…
The basic workings of inflationary models are summarized, along with the arguments that strongly suggest that our universe is the product of inflation. I describe the quantum origin of density perturbations, giving a heuristic derivation of…
In numerical calculations of the primordial power spectrum of perturbations produced during inflation, for very little wavenumber $k$s, to implement the initial conditions required of the perturbation mode functions consistently, we must…
Inflationary cosmology has become one of the cornerstones of modern cosmology. Inflation was the first theory within which it was possible to make predictions about the structure of the Universe on large scales, based on causal physics. The…
If the spatial curvature of the universe is positive, then the curvature term will always dominate at early enough times in a slow-rolling inflationary epoch. This enhances inflationary effects and hence puts limits on the possible number…
Inflation is known to be generically eternal to the future: the false vacuum is thermalized in some regions of space, while inflation continues in other regions. Here, we address the question of whether inflation can also be eternal to the…
An N + 1 dimensional quantum mechanical model for the origin of the universe results in a 58 e-fold inflation and a cosmological constant/vacuum energy density of the same order of magnitude as the critical density.
Suppose that the early Universe starts with a quantum spacetime originated cosmological $\Lambda$-term at the Planck scale $M_{\rm pl}$. The cosmological energy density $\rho_{_{_\Lambda}}$ drives inflation and simultaneously reduces its…
The current status of early universe cosmology can be summarized as precision, but inherently limited, data requiring explanation from precision and robust theory. Specifically inflation is presently the single concrete hope for solving the…
The observable universe is fundamentally inhomogeneous and anisotropic. Quantum description of the generation of these inhomogeneities and anisotropies is ill-understood and unsatisfactory. After providing a brief account of the standard…
The probability for quantum creation of an inflationary universe with a pair of black holes in 1/R - gravitational theory has been studied. Considering a gravitational action which includes a cosmological constant ($\Lambda$) in addition to…