Quantum Fluctuations in Cosmology and How They Lead to a Multiverse
Abstract
This article discusses density perturbations in inflationary models, offering a pedagogical description of how these perturbations are generated by quantum fluctuations in the early universe. A key feature of inflation is that that rapid expansion can stretch microscopic fluctuations to cosmological proportions. I discuss also another important conseqence of quantum fluctuations: the fact that almost all inflationary models become eternal, so that once inflation starts, it never stops.
- Publication:
-
arXiv e-prints
- Pub Date:
- December 2013
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1312.7340
- Bibcode:
- 2013arXiv1312.7340G
- Keywords:
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- High Energy Physics - Theory;
- General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
- E-Print:
- 23 pages, 4 figures. Published in the Proceedings of the 25th Solvay Conference on Physics, "The Theory of the Quantum World," Brussels, 19--22 October 2011, edited by D. Gross, M. Henneaux, and A. Sevrin (World Scientific, 2013)