Journal Article 1 Mention
Eternal inflation with noninflationary pocket universes
Jean-Luc Lehners•2012
Top 8% · 92nd Percentile
29 citations · Astronomy and Astrophysics
Open Access

Summary

1 Sample Definition And Size

The paper is theoretical and does not involve empirical sampling; it analyzes pocket universes produced by eternal inflation using measure proposals. No sample size is applicable.

2 Study Type

Theoretical cosmology study; analytical investigation of measure proposals in eternal inflation (global light-cone cutoff, causal diamond measure) and their implications for pocket universe types.

3 Conflicts Of Interest

No conflicts of interest are declared in the paper (no statement found in available metadata).

4 Results Summary

The analysis shows that leading measure proposals (global light-cone cutoff and causal diamond measure) predict that we are most likely to inhabit a pocket universe that begins with a small Hubble rate, favoring emergent and cyclic universe models. Among these, cyclic pocket universes are further preferred because they repeatedly produce habitable conditions within each pocket. ([journals.aps.org](https://journals.aps.org/prd/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevD.86.043518?utm_source=openai))

Abstract

Eternal inflation produces pocket universes with all physically allowed vacua and histories. Some of these pocket universes might contain a phase of slow-roll inflation, some might undergo cycles of cosmological evolution, and some might look like the Galilean genesis or other ``emergent'' universe scenarios. Which one of these types of universe we are most likely to inhabit depends on the measure we choose in order to regulate the infinities inherent in eternal inflation. We show that the current leading measure proposals---namely, the global light-cone cutoff and its local counterpart, the causal diamond measure---as well as closely related proposals, all predict that we should live in a pocket universe that starts out with a small Hubble rate, thus favoring emergent and cyclic models. Pocket universes which undergo cycles are further preferred, because they produce habitable conditions repeatedly inside each pocket.

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