2011/05/31 by Ben Freivogel · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Context (archaeology) #Measure (data warehouse) #Observable #Obstacle #Quantum Mechanics and Applications #Relativity and Gravitational Theory #Space Science and Extraterrestrial Life #Work (physics) #gr-qc #hep-ph #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/0264-9381/28/20/204007
20 pages, 3 figures; invited review for Classical and Quantum Gravity; v2: references improved
arxiv created 2011/09/18 · openalex publication_date 2011/10/03 · arxiv updated 2015/05/28 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
I describe reasons to think we are living in an eternally inflating multiverse where the observable ‘constants’ of nature vary from place to place. The major obstacle to making predictions in this context is that we must regulate the infinities of eternal inflation. I review a number of proposed regulators, or measures. Recent work has ruled out a number of measures by showing that they conflict with observation, and focused attention on a few proposals. Further, several different measures have been shown to be equivalent. I describe some of the many nontrivial tests these measures will face as we learn more from theory, experiment and observation.