Predictions from Quantum Cosmology

Details Predictions from Quantum Cosmology Predictions from Quantum Cosmology

1995-07-07

arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/9507018v3

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

final version of Erice lectures; some corrections regarding predictions for the origin of density fluctuations and for the cos

Scientific paper

After reviewing the general ideas of quantum cosmology (Wheeler-DeWitt equation, boundary conditions, interpretation of $\psi$), I discuss how these ideas can be tested observationally. Observational predictions differ for different choices of boundary conditions. With tunneling boundary conditions, $\psi$ favors initial states that lead to inflation, while with Hartle-Hawking boundary conditions it does not. This difficulty of the Hartle-Hawking wave function becomes particularly severe if the role of `inflatons' is played by the moduli fields of superstring theories. In models where the constants of Nature can take more than one set of values, $\psi$ can also determine the probability distribution for the constants. This can be done with the aid of the `principle of mediocrity' which asserts that we are a `typical' civilization in the ensemble of universes described by $\psi$. The resulting distribution favors inflation with a very flat potential, thermalization and baryogenesis at electroweak scale, a non-negligible cosmological constant, and density fluctuations seeded either by topological defects, or by quantum fluctuations in models like hybrid inflation (as long as these features are consistent with the allowed values of the constants).

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