Cosmological Surrealism: More than ``Eternal Reality" is Needed

Inflationary Cosmology makes the universe ``eternal" and provides for recurrent universe creation, ad infinitum -- making it also plausible to assume that ``our" Big Bang was also preceeded by others, etc.. However, GR tells us that in the ``parent" universe's reference frame, the newborn universe's expansion will never start. Our picture of ``reality" in spacetime has to be enlarged.Comment: 7 pages, TAUP N23

Domain Walls in SU(5)

We consider the Grand Unified SU(5) model with a small or vanishing cubic term in the adjoint scalar field in the potential. This gives the model an approximate or exact Z$_2$ symmetry whose breaking leads to domain walls. The simplest domain wall has the structure of a kink across which the Higgs field changes sign ($\Phi \to -\Phi$) and inside which the full SU(5) is restored. The kink is shown to be perturbatively unstable for all parameters. We then construct a domain wall solution that is lighter than the kink and show it to be perturbatively stable for a range of parameters. The symmetry in the core of this domain wall is smaller than that outside. The interactions of the domain wall with magnetic monopole is discussed and it is shown that magnetic monopoles with certain internal space orientations relative to the wall pass through the domain wall. Magnetic monopoles in other relative internal space orientations are likely to be swept away on collision with the domain walls, suggesting a scenario where the domain walls might act like optical polarization filters, allowing certain monopole ``polarizations'' to pass through but not others. As SU(5) domain walls will also be formed at small values of the cubic coupling, this leads to a very complicated picture of the evolution of defects after the Grand Unified phase transition.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure. Animations can be viewed at http://theory4.phys.cwru.edu/~levon/figures.htm

Phase Transition in Conformally Induced Gravity with Torsion

We have considered the quantum behavior of a conformally induced gravity in the minimal Riemann-Cartan space. The regularized one-loop effective potential considering the quantum fluctuations of the dilaton and the torsion fields in the Coleman-Weinberg sector gives a sensible phase transition for an inflationary phase in De Sitter space. For this effective potential, we have analyzed the semi-classical equation of motion of the dilaton field in the slow-rolling regime.Comment: 7pages, no figur

Scenario of inflationary cosmology from the phenomenological Λ\Lambda models

Choosing the three phenomenological models of the dynamical cosmological term $\Lambda$, viz., $\Lambda \sim (\dot a/a)^2$, $\Lambda \sim {\ddot a/a}$ and $\Lambda \sim \rho$ where $a$ is the cosmic scale factor, it has been shown by the method of numerical analysis that the three models are equivalent for the flat Universe $k=0$. The evolution plots for dynamical cosmological term $\Lambda$ vs. time $t$ and also the cosmic scale factor $a$ vs. $t$ are drawn here for $k=0, +1$. A qualitative analysis has been made from the plots which supports the idea of inflation and hence expanding Universe.Comment: 12 latex pages with 12 figures; Replaced with the revised version; Accepeted for `J. Non-lin. Frac. Phen. Sci. Engg.

A dynamical dark energy model with a given luminosity distance

It is assumed that the current cosmic acceleration is driven by a scalar field, the Lagrangian of which is a function of the kinetic term only, and that the luminosity distance is a given function of the red-shift. Upon comparison with Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAOs) and Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) data the parameters of the models are determined, and then the time evolution of the scalar field is determined by the dynamics using the cosmological equations. We find that the solution is very different than the corresponding solution when the non-relativistic matter is ignored, and that the universe enters the acceleration era at larger red-shift compared to the standard $\Lambda CDM$ model.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in GER

Conditions for Successful Extended Inflation

We investigate, in a model-independent way, the conditions required to obtain a satisfactory model of extended inflation in which inflation is brought to an end by a first-order phase transition. The constraints are that the correct present strength of the gravitational coupling is obtained, that the present theory of gravity is satisfactorily close to general relativity, that the perturbation spectra from inflation are compatible with large scale structure observations and that the bubble spectrum produced at the phase transition doesn't conflict with the observed level of microwave background anisotropies. We demonstrate that these constraints can be summarized in terms of the behaviour in the conformally related Einstein frame, and can be compactly illustrated graphically. We confirm the failure of existing models including the original extended inflation model, and construct models, albeit rather contrived ones, which satisfy all existing constraints.Comment: 8 pages RevTeX file with one figure incorporated (uses RevTeX and epsf). Also available by e-mailing ARL, or by WWW at http://star-www.maps.susx.ac.uk/papers/infcos_papers.html; Revised to include extra references, results unchanged, to appear Phys Rev

Bubble collisions and measures of the multiverse

To compute the spectrum of bubble collisions seen by an observer in an eternally-inflating multiverse, one must choose a measure over the diverging spacetime volume, including choosing an "initial" hypersurface below which there are no bubble nucleations. Previous calculations focused on the case where the initial hypersurface is pushed arbitrarily deep into the past. Interestingly, the observed spectrum depends on the orientation of the initial hypersurface, however one's ability observe the effect rapidly decreases with the ratio of inflationary Hubble rates inside and outside one's bubble. We investigate whether this conclusion might be avoided under more general circumstances, in particular placing the observer's bubble near the initial hypersurface. We find that it is not. As a point of reference, a substantial appendix reviews relevant aspects of the measure problem of eternal inflation.Comment: 24 pages, two figures, plus 16-page appendix with one figure; v2: minor improvements and clarifications, conclusions unchanged (version to appear in JCAP

Spatial Curvature Falsifies Eternal Inflation

Inflation creates large-scale cosmological density perturbations that are characterized by an isotropic, homogeneous, and Gaussian random distribution about a locally flat background. Even in a flat universe, the spatial curvature measured within one Hubble volume receives contributions from long wavelength perturbations, and will not in general be zero. These same perturbations determine the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) temperature fluctuations, which are O(10^-5). Consequently, the low-l multipole moments in the CMB temperature map predict the value of the measured spatial curvature \Omega_k. On this basis we argue that a measurement of |\Omega_k| > 10^-4 would rule out slow-roll eternal inflation in our past with high confidence, while a measurement of \Omega_k < -10^-4 (which is positive curvature, a locally closed universe) rules out false-vacuum eternal inflation as well, at the same confidence level. In other words, negative curvature (a locally open universe) is consistent with false-vacuum eternal inflation but not with slow-roll eternal inflation, and positive curvature falsifies both. Near-future experiments will dramatically extend the sensitivity of \Omega_k measurements and constitute a sharp test of these predictions.Comment: 16+2 pages, 2 figure

Alternative inflationary scenario due to compact extra dimensions

The main goal of this paper is to give an alternative interpretation of space-like and time-like extra dimensions as a primary factor for inflation in the early universe. We introduce the 5-dimensional perfect fluid and compare the energy-momentum tensor for the bulk scalar field with space-like and time-like extra dimensions. It is shown, that additional dimensions can imply to negative pressure in the slow roll regime in the early higher-dimensional world.Comment: 6 page

Inflation in Gauged 6D Supergravity

In this note we demonstrate that chaotic inflation can naturally be realized in the context of an anomaly free minimal gauged supergravity in D=6 which has recently been the focus of some attention. This particular model has a unique maximally symmetric ground state solution, $R^{3,1} \times S^2$ which leaves half of the six-dimensional supersymmetries unbroken. In this model, the inflaton field $\phi$ originates from the complex scalar fields in the D=6 scalar hypermultiplet. The mass and the self couplings of the scalar field are dictated by the D=6 Lagrangian. The scalar potential has an absolute munimum at $\phi = 0$ with no undetermined moduli fields. Imposing a mild bound on the radius of $S^2$ enables us to obtain chaotic inflation. The low eenrgy equations of motion are shown to be consistent for the range of scalar field values relevant for inflation.Comment: one reference adde