The boundary proposal

Autor: Bjoern Friedrich, Arthur Hebecker
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2024
Předmět:
Zdroj: Physics Letters B, Vol 856, Iss , Pp 138946- (2024)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 0370-2693
DOI: 10.1016/j.physletb.2024.138946
Popis: One of the leading ideas for the beginning of the Universe is the Hartle-Hawking ‘No-Boundary Proposal.’ Since the Cobordism Conjecture claims that any spacetime allows for a dynamical boundary, we suggest that one may equally well consider a ‘Boundary Proposal’. Specifically, the corresponding euclidean instanton is a sphere with two holes around north and south pole cut out. Analogously to the Hartle-Hawking proposal, the sphere is then cut in two at the equator and half of it is dropped. The equator is glued to an expanding Lorentzian de Sitter space, implementing a beginning of the Universe with a spacelike spherical boundary at its earliest moment. This process is in principle on equal footing with the one based on the no-boundary instanton. In fact, if the Linde-Vilenkin sign choice is used, this ‘Boundary’ creation process may even dominate. An intriguing implication arises if tensionless end-of-the-world branes, as familiar from type-IIA or M-theory, are available: Analogously to the Boundary Proposal, one may then be able to create a compact, flat torus universe from nothing, without any exponential suppression or enhancement factors.
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