Related papers: Cosmology From Random Multifield Potentials
Based on random matrix theory, we compute the likelihood of saddles and minima in a class of random potentials that are softly bounded from above and below, as required for the validity of low energy effective theories. Imposing this bound…
It is speculated that the correct theory of fundamental physics includes a large landscape of states, which can be described as a potential which is a function of N scalar fields and some number of discrete variables. The properties of such…
An important unsolved problem that affects practically all attempts to connect string theory to cosmology and phenomenology is how to distinguish effective field theories belonging to the string landscape from those that are not consistent…
We construct a class of random potentials for N >> 1 scalar fields using non-equilibrium random matrix theory, and then characterize multifield inflation in this setting. By stipulating that the Hessian matrices in adjacent coordinate…
Random, multifield functions can set generic expectations for landscape-style cosmologies. We consider the inflationary implications of a landscape defined by a Gaussian random function, which is perhaps the simplest such scenario. Many key…
The suggestion that there exist causally disconnected universes or sub-universes to explain the values of physical parameters such as the cosmological constant is discussed. A statistical model of the string landscape/topography is…
Inflationary cosmology leads to the picture of a "multiverse," involving an infinite number of (spatially infinite) post-inflationary thermalized regions, called pocket universes. In the context of theories with many vacua, such as the…
Attempts to connect string theory with astrophysical observation are hampered by a jargon barrier, where an intimidating profusion of orientifolds, Kahler potentials, etc. dissuades cosmologists from attempting to work out the astrophysical…
Landscape cosmology posits the existence of a convoluted, multidimensional, scalar potential -- the "landscape" -- with vast numbers of metastable minima. Random matrices and random functions in many dimensions provide toy models of the…
We compute the distribution of minima that are reached dynamically on multi-field axionic landscapes, both numerically and analytically. Such landscapes are well suited for inflationary model building due to the presence of shift symmetries…
We construct models of inflation with many randomly interacting fields and use these to study the generation of cosmological observables. We model the potentials as multi-dimensional Gaussian random fields (GRFs) and identify powerful…
We study the distribution of metastable vacua and the likelihood of slow roll inflation in high dimensional random landscapes. We consider two examples of landscapes: a Gaussian random potential and an effective supergravity potential…
I examine some non-anthropic approaches to the string landscape. These approaches are based on finding the initial conditions of the universe using the wavefunction of the multiverse to select the most probable vacuum out of this landscape.…
After reviewing the cosmological constant problem - why is Lambda not huge? - I outline the two basic approaches that had emerged by the late 1980s, and note that each made a clear prediction. Precision cosmological experiments now indicate…
We develop a stochastic description of small-field inflationary histories with a graceful exit in a random potential whose Hessian is a Gaussian random matrix as a model of the unstructured part of the string landscape. The dynamical…
We argue that a generic instability afflicts vacua that arise in theories whose moduli space has large dimension. Specifically, by studying theories with multiple scalar fields we provide numerical evidence that for a generic local minimum…
Motivated by the string landscape, inflation may happen on a high dimensional complicated potential. We propose a new way to construct some high dimensional random potentials, and study inflation on top of that, for up to 50-dimensions in…
False-vacuum eternal inflation can be described as a random walk on the network of vacua of the string landscape. In this paper we show that the problem can be mapped naturally to a problem of directed percolation. The mapping relies on two…
We show that in a general \cal{N} = 1 supergravity with N \gg 1 scalar fields, an exponentially small fraction of the de Sitter critical points are metastable vacua. Taking the superpotential and Kahler potential to be random functions, we…
We develop a numerical statistical method to study linear cosmological fluctuations in inflationary scenarios with multiple fields, and apply it to an ensemble of six-field inflection point models in string theory. The latter are concrete…