On the initial singularity and extendibility of flat quasi-de Sitter spacetimes

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

Documents

  • Fulltext

    Final published version, 1.17 MB, PDF document

Inflationary spacetimes have been argued to be past geodesically incomplete in many situations. However, whether the geodesic incompleteness implies the existence of an initial spacetime curvature singularity or whether the spacetime may be extended (potentially into another phase of the universe) is generally unknown. Both questions have important physical implications. In this paper, we take a closer look at the geometrical structure of inflationary spacetimes and investigate these very questions. We first classify which past inflationary histories have a scalar curvature singularity and which might be extendible and/or non-singular in homogeneous and isotropic cosmology with flat spatial sections. Then, we derive rigorous extendibility criteria of various regularity classes for quasi-de Sitter spacetimes that evolve from infinite proper time in the past. Finally, we show that beyond homogeneity and isotropy, special continuous extensions respecting the Einstein field equations with a perfect fluid must have the equation of state of a de Sitter universe asymptotically. An interpretation of our results is that past-eternal inflationary scenarios are most likely physically singular, except in situations with very special initial conditions.

Original languageEnglish
Article number182
JournalJournal of High Energy Physics
Volume2023
Issue number10
Number of pages64
ISSN1126-6708
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, The Author(s).

    Research areas

  • Classical Theories of Gravity, de Sitter space, Differential and Algebraic Geometry, Spacetime Singularities

ID: 374122051