TY - JOUR
T1 - Predictability crisis in inflationary cosmology and its resolution
AU - Vanchurin, Vitaly
AU - Vilenkin, Alexander
PY - 2000
Y1 - 2000
N2 - Models of inflationary cosmology can lead to variation of observable parameters (“constants of nature”) on extremely large scales. The question of making probabilistic predictions for today’s observables in such models has been investigated in the literature. Because of the infinite thermalized volume resulting from eternal inflation, it has proved difficult to obtain a meaningful and unambiguous probability distribution for observables, in particular due to the gauge dependence. In the present paper, we further develop the gauge-invariant procedure proposed in a previous work for models with a continuous variation of “constants.” The recipe uses an unbiased selection of a connected piece of the thermalized volume as sample for the probability distribution. To implement the procedure numerically, we develop two methods applicable to a reasonably wide class of models: one based on the Fokker-Planck equation of stochastic inflation and the other based on direct simulation of inflationary spacetime. We present and compare results obtained using these methods.
AB - Models of inflationary cosmology can lead to variation of observable parameters (“constants of nature”) on extremely large scales. The question of making probabilistic predictions for today’s observables in such models has been investigated in the literature. Because of the infinite thermalized volume resulting from eternal inflation, it has proved difficult to obtain a meaningful and unambiguous probability distribution for observables, in particular due to the gauge dependence. In the present paper, we further develop the gauge-invariant procedure proposed in a previous work for models with a continuous variation of “constants.” The recipe uses an unbiased selection of a connected piece of the thermalized volume as sample for the probability distribution. To implement the procedure numerically, we develop two methods applicable to a reasonably wide class of models: one based on the Fokker-Planck equation of stochastic inflation and the other based on direct simulation of inflationary spacetime. We present and compare results obtained using these methods.
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U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevD.61.083507
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevD.61.083507
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:17044377466
SN - 1550-7998
VL - 61
JO - Physical Review D - Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology
JF - Physical Review D - Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology
IS - 8
ER -