An Observational Test of Quantum Cosmology

Abstract

We compute the tensor CMB anisotropy power spectrum for singular and non-singular instantons describing the beginning of an open universe according to the Euclidean no boundary proposal. Singular instantons occur generically, whereas non-singular instantons require more contrived scalar field potentials. For the latter, we consider potentials in which a sharp feature, either negative or positive, is added to a gently sloping potential. In the first case one finds a nearly divergent contribution to the low multipole CMB anisotropy, in conflict with the COBE observations. In the second case the divergence is weaker, but matching the low multipoles forces the added feature to be large and narrow. For singular instantons, there is a better match to the observations, without any such contrivance. The distinction between singular and nonsingular instantons disappears in the limit as the universe becomes flat, but is still observable for densities as high as 0.7 of the critical density.

15 pages RevTex, including two postscript figure files. Revised to extend range of Coleman De Luccia theories considered and to include models with a cosmological constant

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• Populating the Landscape: A Top Down Approach
• Homogeneous Modes of Cosmological Instantons
• Why Does Inflation Start at the Top of the Hill?
• Closed Universes from Cosmological Instantons
• Negative Modes of Oscillating Instantons
• Predicting a Prior for Planck
• Topological defects: fossils of an anisotropic era?
• Bubbles from Nothing
• Exploring trans-Planckian physics and the curvature effect by primordial power spectrum with WMAP five-year data