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Related papers: Multiverses and Cosmology: Philosophical Issues

200 papers

This paper has two parts, for a specific multiverse, and for the origin of our universe as it resulted from that multiverse. The first is based on the Planck domain and a Chandrasekhar equation that have quantum, relativity, gravity, and…

General Physics · Physics 2009-12-31 Tom Gehrels

I survey physics theories involving parallel universes, which form a natural four-level hierarchy of multiverses allowing progressively greater diversity. Level I: A generic prediction of inflation is an infinite ergodic universe, which…

Astrophysics · Physics 2007-05-23 Max Tegmark

I describe reasons to think we are living in an eternally inflating multiverse where the observable "constants" of nature vary from place to place. The major obstacle to making predictions in this context is that we must regulate the…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2015-05-28 Ben Freivogel

The mechanism of production of a large number of universes is considered. It is shown that universes with parameters suitable for creation of life are necessarily produced as a result of quantum fluctuations. Fractal structures are formed…

Astrophysics · Physics 2008-11-26 S. G. Rubin

We study some collective phenomena that may happen in a multiverse scenario. First, it is posed an interaction scheme between universes whose evolution is dominated by a cosmological constant. As a result of the interaction, the value of…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2017-08-04 A. Alonso-Serrano , C. Bastos , O. Bertolami , S. Robles-Perez

We study the redundancies in the global spacetime description of the eternally inflating multiverse using the quantum extremal surface prescription. We argue that a sufficiently large spatial region in a bubble universe has an entanglement…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2021-10-13 Kevin Langhoff , Chitraang Murdia , Yasunori Nomura

It is fair to say that the deepest mystery in our understanding of nature is the birth of our universe. Much of the dilemma over the last decades comes from the extraordinarily small probability that the universe started with the high…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2008-09-25 Laura Mersini-Houghton

Theory testing in the physical sciences has been revolutionized in recent decades by Bayesian approaches to probability theory. Here, I will consider Bayesian approaches to theory extensions, that is, theories like inflation which aim to…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2017-04-07 Luke A. Barnes

There is a deep cosmological mystery: although dependent on very different underlying physics, the timescales of structure formation, of galaxy cooling (both radiatively and against the CMB), and of vacuum domination do not differ by many…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2009-09-24 Raphael Bousso , Lawrence J. Hall , Yasunori Nomura

The paper discusses the problem of demarcation between the dimensions of natural and the human sciences in contemporary cosmology. In spite of a common presumption that cosmology is a natural science, the specificity of its alleged subject…

General Physics · Physics 2011-02-16 Alexei V. Nesteruk

We present a framework in which well-defined predictions are obtained in an eternally inflating multiverse, based on the principles of quantum mechanics. We show that the entire multiverse is described purely from the viewpoint of a single…

High Energy Physics - Theory · Physics 2015-05-27 Yasunori Nomura

Everlasting inflation has far-reaching implications for cosmology and the standing of self-localizing inferences made by observers, which have been subjects of renewed interest in light of the growing acceptance of theory landscapes and the…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2021-12-28 Ross N Greenwood , Anthony Aguirre

This paper offers a synthesis of the positions in the literature regarding controversies about the multiverse. After reviewing some simple elements of modern cosmology and its observational limitations, we will present the history of the…

History and Philosophy of Physics · Physics 2020-09-15 Alejandro Gangui

This paper evaluates some important aspects of the multiverse concept. Firstly, the most realistic opportunity for it which is the spacetime variability of the physical constants and may deliver worlds with different physics, hopefully…

History and Philosophy of Physics · Physics 2019-10-22 Mariusz P. Dabrowski

The Multiverse is collection of parallel universes. In this article a formal theory and a topos-theoretic models of the multiverse are given. For this the Lawvere-Kock Synthetic Differential Geometry and topos models for smooth…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2007-05-23 Alexander K. Gouts

Problems with uniform probabilities on an infinite support show up in contemporary cosmology. This paper focuses on the context of inflation theory, where it complicates the assignment of a probability measure over pocket universes. The…

History and Philosophy of Physics · Physics 2023-09-11 Sylvia Wenmackers

I review the basis and limitations of plausible inference in cosmology, in particular the limitation that it can only provide fundamentally true inferences when the hypotheses under consideration form a set that is exhaustive. They never…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2009-10-20 David W. Hogg

We discuss scientific realism from the perspective of modern cosmology, especially primordial cosmology: i.e. the cosmological investigation of the very early universe. We first (Section 2) state our allegiance to scientific realism, and…

History and Philosophy of Physics · Physics 2016-06-14 Feraz Azhar , Jeremy Butterfield

Science looks for the simplest hypotheses to explain observations. Starting with the simple assumption that {\em the actual world is the best possible world}, I sketch an {\it Optimal Argument for the Existence of God}, that the sufferings…

General Physics · Physics 2012-12-27 Don N. Page

Finetuning and Naturalness are extra-empirical theory assessments that reflect our expectation how scientific theories should provide an intuitive understanding about the foundations underlying the observed phenomena. Recently, the absence…

History and Philosophy of Physics · Physics 2019-05-16 Heinrich Päs