Is there any coherent measure for eternal inflation?

Abstract

An eternally inflating universe produces an infinite amount of spatial volume, so every possible event happens an infinite number of times, and it is impossible to define probabilities in terms of frequencies. This problem is usually addressed by means of a measure, which regulates the infinities and produces meaningful predictions. I argue that any measure should obey certain general axioms, but then give a simple toy model in which one can prove that no measure obeying the axioms exists. In certain cases of eternal inflation there are measures that obey the axioms, but all such measures appear to be unacceptable for other reasons. Thus the problem of defining sensible probabilities in eternal inflation seems not be solved.

10 pages, no figures, RevTeX. Ver. 2: simplification: only two axioms and two "colors" of observer

References in corpus (2)

• Complementarity in the Multiverse
• Eternal inflation predicts that time will end

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