Multiverse Predictions for Habitability: The Number of Stars and their Properties

Abstract

In a multiverse setting, we expect to be situated in a universe that is exceptionally good at producing life. Though the conditions for what life needs to arise and thrive are currently unknown, many will be tested in the coming decades. Here we investigate several different habitability criteria, and their influence on multiverse expectations: Does complex life need photosynthesis? Is there a minimum timescale necessary for development? Can life arise on tidally locked planets? Are convective stars habitable? Variously adopting different stances on each of these criteria can alter whether our observed values of the fine structure constant, the electron to proton mass ratio, and the strength of gravity are typical to high significance. This serves as a way of generating predictions for the requirements of life that can be tested with future observations, any of which could falsify the multiverse scenario.

26 pages, 8 figures, v2: matches published version

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Cited by in corpus (9)

• Multiverse Predictions for Habitability: Number of Potentially Habitable Planets
• On the wall velocity dependence of electroweak baryogenesis
• Is Cosmological Tuning Fine or Coarse?
• Multiverse Predictions for Habitability: Fraction of Planets that Develop Life
• Multiverse Predictions for Habitability: Fraction of Life that Develops Intelligence
• Multiverse Predictions for Habitability: Element Abundances
• Multiverse Predictions for Habitability: Planetary Characteristics
• Multiverse Predictions for Habitability: Stellar and Atmospheric Habitability
• Multiverse Predictions for Habitability: Origin of Life Scenarios