English

Quantum Cosmology and Open Universes

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2009-10-31 v2 Astrophysics

Abstract

Quantum creation of Universes with compact spacelike sections that have curvature kk either closed, flat or open, i.e. k=±1,0k=\pm1,0 are studied. In the flat and open cases, the superpotential of the Wheeler De Witt equation is significantly modified, and as a result the qualitative behaviour of a typical wavefunction differs from the traditional closed case. Using regularity arguments, it is shown that the only consistent state for the wavefunction is the Tunneling one. By computing the quantum probabilities for the curvature of the sections, it is shown that quantum cosmology actually favours that the Universe be open, k=1k=-1. In all cases sufficient inflation 60\sim 60 e-foldings is predicted: this is an improvement over classical measures that generally are ambiguous as to whether inflation is certain to occur.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.gr-qc/9905056,
  title  = {Quantum Cosmology and Open Universes},
  author = {D. H. Coule and Jerome Martin},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:gr-qc/9905056},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

11 pages, Revtex, 7 figures. Accepted for publication in PRD. New material and important corrections added in response to referee's report

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