Does inflation provide natural initial conditions for the universe?
May, 2005
6 pages
Published in:
- Gen.Rel.Grav. 37 (2005) 1671-1674,
- Int.J.Mod.Phys.D 14 (2005) 2335-2340
e-Print:
- gr-qc/0505037 [gr-qc]
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Abstract: (arXiv)
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.Note:
- Submitted to Gravity Research Foundation Essay Competition: Based on hep-th/0410270
- Cosmology
- inflation
- entropy
- arrow of time
- inflation
- entropy
- vacuum state: energy
- space-time: de Sitter
- boundary condition
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