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High Energy Physics - Theory, hep-th,Astrophysics, Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics, astro-ph.CO
Abstract:
Eternal inflation produces pocket universes with all physically allowed vacua
and histories. Some of these pocket universes might contain a phase of
slow-roll inflation, some might undergo cycles of cosmological evolution and
some might look like the galilean genesis or other "emergent" universe
scenarios. Which one of these types of universe we are most likely to inhabit
depends on the measure we choose in order to regulate the infinities inherent
in eternal inflation. We show that the currently leading measure proposals,
namely the global light-cone cut-off and its local counterpart, the causal
diamond measure, as well as closely related proposals, all predict that we
should live in a pocket universe that starts out with a {\it small} Hubble
rate, thus favoring emergent and cyclic models. Pocket universes which undergo
cycles are further preferred, because they produce habitable conditions
repeatedly inside each pocket.