Eternal Inflation - Quantum Fluctuations of The Inflaton Field

Quantum Fluctuations of The Inflaton Field

Chaotic Inflation theory models quantum fluctuations in the rate of inflation. Those regions with a higher rate of inflation expand faster and dominate the universe, despite the natural tendency of inflation to end in other regions. This allows inflation to continue forever, to produce future-eternal inflation.

Within the framework of established knowledge of physics and cosmology, our universe could be one of many in a super-universe or multiverse. Linde (1990, 1994) has proposed that a background space-time "foam" empty of matter and radiation will experience local quantum fluctuations in curvature, forming many bubbles of false vacuum that individually inflate into mini-universes with random characteristics. Each universe within the multiverse can have a different set of constants and physical laws. Some might have life of a form different from ours; others might have no life at all or something even more complex or so different that we cannot even imagine it. Obviously we are in one of those universes with life. —Victor J. Stenger

Past-eternal models have been proposed which adhere to the perfect cosmological principle and have features of the steady state cosmos.

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