Eternal inflation

Eternal inflation is a hypothetical inflationary universe the speed of light, the empty bubbles could not coalesce
model, which is itself an outgrowth or extension of the to reheat the universe, because they could not keep up
Big Bang theory. with the remaining inflating universe.
According to eternal inflation, the inflationary phase of In 1982, this "graceful exit problem" was solved indepen-
the universe’s expansion lasts forever throughout most of dently by Andrei Linde and by Andreas Albrecht and Paul
the universe. Because the regions expand exponentially J. Steinhardt[5] who showed how to end inflation without
rapidly, most of the volume of the universe at any given making empty bubbles and, instead, end up with a hot
time is inflating. Eternal inflation, therefore, produces expanding universe. The basic idea was to have a contin-
a hypothetically infinite multiverse, in which only an in- uous “slow-roll” or slow evolution from false vacuum to
significant fractal volume ends inflation. true without making any bubbles. The improved model
Paul Steinhardt, one of the original architects of the in- was called “new inflation.”
flationary model, introduced the first example of eternal In 1983, Paul Steinhardt was the first to show that this
inflation in 1983,[1] and Alexander Vilenkin showed that “new inflation” does not have to end everywhere.[1] In-
it is generic.[2] stead, it might only end in a finite patch or a hot bubble
Alan Guth's 2007 paper, “Eternal inflation and its full of matter and radiation, and that inflation continues
in most of the universe while producing hot bubble after
implications”,[3] states that under reasonable assumptions
“Although inflation is generically eternal into the future, hot bubble along the way. Alexander Vilenkin showed
that when quantum effects are properly included, this is
it is not eternal into the past.” Guth detailed what was [2]
known about the subject at the time, and demonstrated actually generic to all new inflation models.
that eternal inflation was still considered the likely out- Using ideas introduced by Steinhardt and Vilenkin, An-
come of inflation, more than 20 years after eternal infla- drei Linde published an alternative model of inflation in
tion was first introduced by Steinhardt. 1986 which used these ideas to provide a detailed descrip-
tion of what has become known as the Chaotic Inflation
theory or eternal inflation.[6]

1 Overview
1.2 Quantum fluctuations
1.1 Development of the theory
New inflation does not produce a perfectly symmetric
Inflation, or the inflationary universe theory, was origi- universe due to quantum fluctuations during inflation.
nally developed as a way to overcome the few remaining The fluctuations cause the energy and matter density to
problems with what was otherwise considered a success- be different in different points in space.
ful theory of cosmology, the Big Bang model. Quantum fluctuations in the hypothetical inflation field
produce changes in the rate of expansion that are respon-
In 1979, Alan Guth introduced the inflationary model of
the universe to explain why the universe is flat and homo- sible for eternal inflation. Those regions with a higher
geneous (which refers to the smooth distribution of mat- rate of inflation expand faster and dominate the universe,
ter and radiation on a large scale).[4] The basic idea was despite the natural tendency of inflation to end in other
that the universe underwent a period of rapidly acceler- regions. This allows inflation to continue forever, to pro-
ating expansion a few instants after the Big Bang. He duce future-eternal inflation.
offered a mechanism for causing the inflation to begin: In 1980, quantum fluctuations were suggested by
false vacuum energy. Guth coined the term “inflation,” Viatcheslav Mukhanov and Gennady Chibisov[7][8] in the
and was the first to discuss the theory with other scien- Soviet Union in the context of a model of modified gravity
tists worldwide. by Alexei Starobinsky[9] to be possible seeds for forming
Guth’s original formulation was problematic, as there was galaxies.
no consistent way to bring an end to the inflationary epoch In the context of inflation, quantum fluctuations were first
and end up with the hot, isotropic, homogeneous universe analyzed at the three-week 1982 Nuffield Workshop on
observed today. Although the false vacuum could decay the Very Early Universe at Cambridge University.[10] The
into empty “bubbles” of “true vacuum” that expanded at average strength of the fluctuations was first calculated

1
2 4 REFERENCES

by four groups working separately over the course of the It’s hard to build models of inflation that
workshop: Stephen Hawking;[11] Starobinsky;[12] Guth don't lead to a multiverse. It’s not impossible,
and So-Young Pi;[13] and James M. Bardeen, Paul Stein- so I think there’s still certainly research that
hardt and Michael Turner.[14] needs to be done. But most models of infla-
The early calculations derived at the Nuffield Workshop tion do lead to a multiverse, and evidence for
only focused on the average fluctuations, whose magni- inflation will be pushing us in the direction of
tude is too small to affect inflation. However, begin- taking the idea of a multiverse seriously.[20]
ning with the examples presented by Steinhardt[1] and
Vilenkin,[2] the same quantum physics was later shown According to Linde, “It’s possible to invent models of in-
to produce occasional large fluctuations that increase the flation that do not allow a multiverse, but it’s difficult. Ev-
rate of inflation and keep inflation going eternally. ery experiment that brings better credence to inflationary
theory brings us much closer to hints that the multiverse
is real.”[20]
1.3 Further developments

In analyzing the Planck Satellite data from 2013, Anna Ij- 3 See also
jas and Paul Steinhardt showed that the simplest textbook
inflationary models were eliminated and that the remain- • Astrophysics
ing models require exponentially more tuned starting con- • Cosmology
ditions, more parameters to be adjusted, and less infla-
tion. Later Planck observations reported in 2015 con- • Inflation
firmed these conclusions.[15][16]
• Fractal cosmology
A 2014 paper by Kohli and Haslam called into question
the viability of the eternal inflation theory, by analyz- • Physical cosmology
ing Linde’s chaotic inflation theory in which the quan-
• Shape of the universe
tum fluctuations are modeled as Gaussian white noise.[17]
They showed that in this popular scenario, eternal in-
flation in fact cannot be eternal, and the random noise
leads to spacetime being filled with singularities. This 4 References
was demonstrated by showing that solutions to the Ein-
stein field equations diverge in a finite time. Their paper [1] Gibbons, Gary W.; Hawking, Stephen W.; Siklos, S.T.C.,
therefore concluded that the theory of eternal inflation eds. (1983). “Natural Inflation”. The Very Early Universe.
Cambridge University Press. pp. 251–66. ISBN 0-521-
based on random quantum fluctuations would not be a vi-
31677-4.
able theory, and the resulting existence of a multiverse is
“still very much an open question that will require much [2] Vilenkin, Alexander (1983). “Birth of Inflation-
deeper investigation”. ary Universes”. Physical Review D. 27 (12):
2848–2855. Bibcode:1983PhRvD..27.2848V.
doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.27.2848.

2 Inflation, eternal inflation and [3] Guth, Alan; Eternal inflation and its implications arXiv:
hep-th/0702178
the multiverse [4] Guth, Alan H. “Inflationary universe: A possible solution
to the horizon and flatness problems”. Phys. Rev. D. 23
In 1983, it was shown that inflation could be eternal, (2): 347–356. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.23.347.
leading to a multiverse in which space is broken up into
[5] Albrecht, A.; Steinhardt, P. J. (1982). “Cosmology
bubbles or patches whose properties differ from patch to
For Grand Unified Theories With Radiatively Induced
patch spanning all physical possibilities.
Symmetry Breaking”. Phys. Rev. Lett. 48
Paul Steinhardt, who produced the first example of eter- (17): 1220–1223. Bibcode:1982PhRvL..48.1220A.
nal inflation,[1] eventually became a strong and vocal op- doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.48.1220.
ponent of the theory. He argued that the multiverse rep- [6] Linde, A.D. (August 1986). “Eternally Existing
resented a breakdown of the inflationary theory, because, Self-Reproducing Chaotic Inflationary Universe”
in a multiverse, any outcome is equally possible, so infla- (PDF). Physics Letters B. 175 (4): 395–400.
tion makes no predictions and, hence, is untestable. Con- Bibcode:1986PhLB..175..395L. doi:10.1016/0370-
sequently, he argued, inflation fails a key condition for a 2693(86)90611-8.
scientific theory.[18][19]
[7] Mukhanov, ViatcheslavF.; Chibisov, G. V. (1981).
Both Linde and Guth, however, continued to support the “Quantum fluctuation and “nonsingular” universe”. JETP
inflationary theory and the multiverse. Guth declared: Letters. 33: 532–5. Bibcode:1981JETPL..33..532M.
 3

[8] Mukhanov, Viatcheslav F. (1982). “The vacuum energy

and large scale structure of the universe”. Soviet Physics
JETP. 56: 258–65.

[9] Starobinsky, A. A. (1979). “Spectrum of Relict

Gravitational Radiation and The Early State
of the Universe” (PDF). JETP Lett. 30: 682.
Bibcode:1979JETPL..30..682S.

[10] See Guth (1997) for a popular description of the work-

shop, or The Very Early Universe, ISBN 0521316774 eds
Hawking, Gibbon & Siklos for a more detailed report

[11] Hawking, S.W. (1982). “The development of ir-

regularities in a single bubble inflationary uni-
verse”. Physics Letters B. 115 (4): 295–297.
Bibcode:1982PhLB..115..295H. doi:10.1016/0370-
2693(82)90373-2.

[12] Starobinsky, Alexei A. (1982). “Dynamics of phase tran-

sition in the new inflationary universe scenario and gener-
ation of perturbations”. Physics Letters B. 117 (3–4): 175–
8. Bibcode:1982PhLB..117..175S. doi:10.1016/0370-
2693(82)90541-X.

[13] Guth, A.H.; Ping, So-Young (1982). “Fluctuations

in the new inflationary universe”. Phys. Rev. Lett.
49 (15): 1110–3. Bibcode:1982PhRvL..49.1110G.
doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.49.1110.

[14] Bardeen, James M.; Steinhardt, Paul J.; Turner,

Michael S. (1983). “Spontaneous creation of
almost scale-free density perturbations in an in-
flationary universe”. Physical Review D. 28
(4): 679–693. Bibcode:1983PhRvD..28..679B.
doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.28.679.

[15] Iijas, Anna; Loeb, Abraham; Steinhardt, Paul

(2013). “Inflationary Paradigm in trouble after
Planck 2013”. Phys. Lett. B. 723 (4-5): 261–266.
Bibcode:2013PhLB..723..261I. arXiv:1304.2785 .
doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2013.05.023.

[16] Iijas, Anna; Steinhardt, Paul J.; Loeb, Abra-

ham (2014). “Inflationary Schism”. Phys. Lett.
B. 7: 142–146. Bibcode:2014PhLB..736..142I.
doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2014.07.012.

[17] http://arxiv.org/pdf/1408.2249.pdf

[18] Steinhardt, Paul J. (April 2011). “Inflation Debate: Is

the theory at the heart of modern cosmology deeply
flawed?" (PDF). Scientific American. 304: 36–43.
doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0411-36.

[19] http://www.physics.princeton.edu/~{}steinh/vaasrev.pdf

[20] Our Universe May Exist in a Multiverse, Cosmic Inflation

Discovery Suggests

5 External links
• 'Multiverse' theory suggested by microwave back-
ground BBC News, 3 August 2011 about testing
eternal inflation.
4 6 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

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