Affiliation:
1. Enrico Fermi Institute, Department of Physics, and Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago, 5640 S. Ellis Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
Abstract
If our universe underwent inflation, its entropy during the inflationary phase would have been 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 space–time. 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.
Publisher
World Scientific Pub Co Pte Lt
Subject
Space and Planetary Science,Astronomy and Astrophysics,Mathematical Physics
Cited by
17 articles.
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