Does Inflation Provide Natural Initial Conditions for the Universe?

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics – General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

Submitted to Gravity Research Foundation Essay Competition; based on hep-th/0410270

Scientific paper

10.1142/S0218271805008054

If our universe underwent inflation, its entropy during the inflationary phase was substantially lower than it is today. Because a low-entropy state is less likely to be chosen randomly than a high-entropy one, inflation is unlikely to arise through randomly-chosen initial conditions. To resolve this puzzle, we examine the notion of a natural state for the universe, and argue that it is a nearly-empty spacetime. If empty space has a small vacuum energy, however, inflation can begin spontaneously in this background. This scenario explains why a universe like ours is likely to have begun via a period of inflation, and also provides an origin for the cosmological arrow of time.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

Does Inflation Provide Natural Initial Conditions for the Universe? 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 Does Inflation Provide Natural Initial Conditions for the Universe?, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Does Inflation Provide Natural Initial Conditions for the Universe? will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-3626

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.