activity
20152026
most citedThe Real No-Boundary Wave Function in Lorentzian Quantum Cosmology

109 citations · 409 across the 21 of their papers we have counts for

collaborators

22 papers

hep-th2026

Catastrophic Inflation in the Axiverse

Naomi Gendler, Oliver Janssen, Matthew Kleban +1

In the landscape of compactifications of type IIB string theory on O3/O7 orientifolds of Calabi--Yau threefolds, we identify regions of the axion potential in specific geometries t…

physics.pop-ph2026

A gentle introduction to the cosmological multiverse

Oliver Janssen

We give an introduction to the cosmological multiverse, aimed at an audience of artists. We discuss general relativity -- our modern theory of gravity -- and the cosmological const…

hep-th2026

An ode to instantons

Oliver Janssen, Joel Karlsson, Flavio Riccardi +1

We present a formalism for semiclassical time evolution in quantum mechanics, building on a century of work. We identify complex saddle points in real time, real saddle points in c…

hep-th2026

Allowable complex metrics and the gravitational index of AdS black holes

Pietro Benetti Genolini, Oliver Janssen, Sameer Murthy

We discuss the Kontsevich-Segal-Witten criterion for the allowability of complex metrics, in the context of the gravitational path integral that calculates the supersymmetric index…

hep-th2024

The Kontsevich-Segal Criterion in the No-Boundary State Constrains Anisotropy

Thomas Hertog, Oliver Janssen, Joel Karlsson

We show that the Kontsevich-Segal-Witten (KSW) criterion applied to the no-boundary state constrains anisotropic deformations of de Sitter space. We consider squashed and $S^…

hep-th2024

KSW criterion in large field models

Oliver Janssen

We extend the analytic description of complex no-boundary solutions in the context of inflation to large field models. We discuss the Kontsevich-Segal-Witten (KSW) criterion and fi…

hep-th2023★ 1 cited

Axion minima in string theory

Naomi Gendler, Oliver Janssen, Matthew Kleban +2

We study the landscape of axion theories in compactifications of type IIB string theory on orientifolds of Calabi-Yau threefolds. In a sample of approximately 400,000 geometries we…

hep-th2023★ 19 cited

The Kontsevich-Segal Criterion in the No-Boundary State Constrains Inflation

Thomas Hertog, Oliver Janssen, Joel Karlsson

We show that the Kontsevich-Segal (KS) criterion, applied to the complex saddles that specify the semiclassical no-boundary wave function, acts as a selection mechanism on inflatio…

hep-th2022★ 47 cited

Positivity bounds on effective field theories with spontaneously broken Lorentz invariance

Paolo Creminelli, Oliver Janssen, Leonardo Senatore

We derive positivity bounds on EFT coefficients in theories where boosts are spontaneously broken. We employ the analytic properties of the retarded Green's function of conserved c…

hep-th2021★ 8 cited

Gravity as an ensemble and the moment problem

Oliver Janssen, Mehrdad Mirbabayi, Peter Zograf

If a bulk gravitational path integral can be identified with an average of partition functions over an ensemble of boundary quantum theories, then a corresponding moment problem ca…

hep-th2021★ 12 cited

Low-temperature entropy in JT gravity

Oliver Janssen, Mehrdad Mirbabayi

For ensembles of Hamiltonians that fall under the Dyson classification of random matrices with , the low-temperature mean entropy can be shown to vanish as $\langle…

quant-ph2020

Decoherence: A Numerical Study

Chris Nagele, Oliver Janssen, Matthew Kleban

We study quantum decoherence numerically in a system consisting of a relativistic quantum field theory coupled to a measuring device that is itself coupled to an environment. The m…

gr-qc2020★ 11 cited

Slow-roll approximation in quantum cosmology

Oliver Janssen

In minimally coupled scalar field theories with a potential of the slow-roll type, we give a detailed description of the complex -symmetric solutions to Einstein's equations…

gr-qc2019★ 31 cited

The no-boundary proposal in biaxial Bianchi IX minisuperspace

Oliver Janssen, Jonathan J. Halliwell, Thomas Hertog

We implement the no-boundary proposal for the wave function of the universe in an exactly solvable Bianchi IX minisuperspace model with two scale factors. We extend our earlier wor…

hep-th2019

The Axidental Universe

Thomas C. Bachlechner, Kate Eckerle, Oliver Janssen +1

Theories with several hundred axion fields have enormous numbers of distinct meta-stable minima. A small fraction of these local minima have vacuum energy compatible with current m…

hep-th2018★ 17 cited

Axion Landscape Cosmology

Thomas C. Bachlechner, Kate Eckerle, Oliver Janssen +1

We study the cosmology of complex multi-axion theories. With O(100) fields and GUT scale energies these theories contain a vast number of vacua, inflationary trajectories and a nat…

gr-qc2018★ 66 cited

Damped perturbations in the no-boundary state

Juan Diaz Dorronsoro, Jonathan J. Halliwell, James B. Hartle +3

We evaluate the no-boundary path integral exactly in a Bianchi IX minisuperspace with two scale factors. In this model the no-boundary proposal can be implemented by requiring one…

hep-th2017★ 23 cited

Systematics of Aligned Axions

Thomas C. Bachlechner, Kate Eckerle, Oliver Janssen +1

We describe a novel technique that renders theories of axions tractable, and more generally can be used to efficiently analyze a large class of periodic potentials of arbitrary…

gr-qc2017★ 109 cited

The Real No-Boundary Wave Function in Lorentzian Quantum Cosmology

Juan Diaz Dorronsoro, Jonathan J. Halliwell, James B. Hartle +2

It is shown that the standard no-boundary wave function has a natural expression in terms of a Lorentzian path integral with its contour defined by Picard-Lefschetz theory. The wav…

hep-th2017★ 31 cited

Axions of Evil

Thomas C. Bachlechner, Kate Eckerle, Oliver Janssen +1

We provide a systematic framework for theories of multiple axions. We discover a novel type of "alignment" that renders even very complex theories analytically tractable. Theories…

astro-ph.CO2015★ 6 cited

Sharp Predictions from Eternal Inflation Patches in D-brane Inflation

Thomas Hertog, Oliver Janssen

We numerically generate the six-dimensional landscape of D3-brane inflation and identify patches of eternal inflation near sufficiently flat inflection points of the potential. We…

hep-lat2015★ 28 cited

Phase Diagram of Dynamical Twisted Mass Wilson Fermions at Finite Isospin Chemical Potential

Oliver Janssen, Mario Kieburg, K. Splittorff +2

We consider the phase diagram of twisted mass Wilson fermions of two-flavor QCD in the parameter space of the quark mass, the isospin chemical potential, the twist angle and the la…