Order-invariant measures on fixed causal sets

A causal set is a countably infinite poset in which every element is above finitely many others; causal sets are exactly the posets that have a linear extension with the order-type of the natural numbers -- we call such a linear extension a {\em natural extension}. We study probability measures on the set of natural extensions of a causal set, especially those measures having the property of {\em order-invariance}: if we condition on the set of the bottom $k$ elements of the natural extension, each possible ordering among these $k$ elements is equally likely. We give sufficient conditions for the existence and uniqueness of an order-invariant measure on the set of natural extensions of a causal set.Comment: 25 pages; to appear in Combinatorics, Probability and Computin

The CMB and the measure of the multiverse

In the context of eternal inflation, cosmological predictions depend on the choice of measure to regulate the diverging spacetime volume. The spectrum of inflationary perturbations is no exception, as we demonstrate by comparing the predictions of the fat geodesic and causal patch measures. To highlight the effect of the measure---as opposed to any effects related to a possible landscape of vacua---we take the cosmological model, including the model of inflation, to be fixed. We also condition on the average CMB temperature accompanying the measurement. Both measures predict a 1-point expectation value for the gauge-invariant Newtonian potential, which takes the form of a (scale-dependent) monopole, in addition to a related contribution to the 3-point correlation function, with the detailed form of these quantities differing between the measures. However, for both measures both effects are well within cosmic variance. Our results make clear the theoretical relevance of the measure, and at the same time validate the standard inflationary predictions in the context of eternal inflation.Comment: 28 pages; v2: reference added, some clarification

Causal Set Dynamics: A Toy Model

We construct a quantum measure on the power set of non-cyclic oriented graphs of N points, drawing inspiration from 1-dimensional directed percolation. Quantum interference patterns lead to properties which do not appear to have any analogue in classical percolation. Most notably, instead of the single phase transition of classical percolation, the quantum model displays two distinct crossover points. Between these two points, spacetime questions such as "does the network percolate" have no definite or probabilistic answer.Comment: 28 pages incl. 5 figure