2026/05/26 by Oliver Janssen · 1 voice
Physics and Astronomy · #physics.pop-ph #gr-qc #hep-th
arxiv published 2026/05/26 · arxiv updated 2026/05/29
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 constant, which is widely believed to be responsible for the observed accelerated expansion of the universe. We then turn to a big puzzle that the cosmological constant poses, and, eventually, how the multiverse could solve this puzzle. There's no such thing as a free lunch, however: the multiverse can become arbitrarily large and old. The unsolved problem of making unambiguous predictions for observations in eternally accelerating universes is known as the measure problem of eternal inflation.