Why Does Inflation Start at the Top of the Hill?

Details Why Does Inflation Start at the Top of the Hill? Why Does Inflation Start at the Top of the Hill?

2002-04-25

arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0204212v1

Phys.Rev. D66 (2002) 123509

Physics

High Energy Physics

High Energy Physics - Theory

21 pages, 1 figure

Scientific paper

10.1103/PhysRevD.66.123509

We show why the universe started in an unstable de Sitter state. The quantum origin of our universe implies one must take a `top down' approach to the problem of initial conditions in cosmology, in which the histories that contribute to the path integral, depend on the observable being measured. Using the no boundary proposal to specify the class of histories, we study the quantum cosmological origin of an inflationary universe in theories like trace anomaly driven inflation in which the effective potential has a local maximum. We find that an expanding universe is most likely to emerge in an unstable de Sitter state, by semiclassical tunneling via a Hawking-Moss instanton. Since the top down view is forced upon us by the quantum nature of the universe, we argue that the approach developed here should still apply when the framework of quantum cosmology will be based on M-Theory.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Why Does Inflation Start at the Top of the Hill? does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Why Does Inflation Start at the Top of the Hill?, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Why Does Inflation Start at the Top of the Hill? will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-98718