A Note on the Quantum Creation of Universes

Abstract

We elucidate the nature of the correction to the Hartle-Hawking wavefunction presented in hep-th/$0505104$ and hep-th/$0406107$. The correction comes from the quantum fluctuation of the metric that spontaneously breaks the classical deSitter symmetry. This converts the tunneling from nothing to a deSitter-like universe via a $S^4$ instantion to that via a barrel instanton, which is bounded from below. Its generalization to 10 dimensional spacetime allows us to find the preferred sites in the stringy cosmic landscape. We comment on how some of the problems of the Hartle-Hawking wavefunction are avoided with the new modified wavefunction of the universe, when applied to the spontaneous creation of an inflationary universe. We also summarize our arguments on the validity of the Hartle-Hawking wavefunction in the minisuperspace approximation, as opposed to the WKB formula suggested by Linde and Vilenkin.

29 pages, 4 figures

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• de Sitter Vacua in String Theory
• The statistics of string/M theory vacua
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• Back-Reaction and the Trans-Planckian Problem of Inflation Revisited
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Cited by in corpus (13)

• Cosmological Landscape From Nothing: Some Like It Hot
• Rapid Tunneling and Percolation in the Landscape
• Pre-Inflationary Spacetime in String Cosmology
• A Wave-function for Stringy Universes
• Arrow of Time in String Theory
• A Renormalization Group Approach to the Cosmological Constant Problem
• Spontaneous Creation of the Brane World and Direction of the Time Arrow
• Instanton transition in thermal and moduli deformed de Sitter cosmology
• Unitarity at Infinity and Topological Holography
• Exact spectrum of scalar field perturbations in a radiation deformed closed de Sitter universe
• De Sitter Quantum Mechanics and Inflationary Matrix Cosmology of Self-tuned Universe
• Space, Time, and Tachyon Condensation
• Quantum Creation of a Toy Universe without Inflation