arXiv:hep-th/0405270hep-th
Can the universe afford inflation?
Early discovery. Linked by one identifiable commenter. This paper is outside the main ranking; a mention is not an endorsement.
Abstract
Cosmic inflation is envisioned as the ``most likely'' start for the observed universe. To give substance to this claim, a framework is needed in which inflation can compete with other scenarios and the relative likelihood of all scenarios can be quantified. The most concrete scheme to date for performing such a comparison shows inflation to be strongly disfavored. We analyze the source of this failure for inflation and present an alternative calculation, based on more traditional semiclassical methods, that results in inflation being exponentially favored. We argue that reconciling the two contrasting approaches presents interesting fundamental challenges, and is likely to have a major impact on ideas about the early universe.
Boltzmann brains in the sense preferred by some authors (notably https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0405270 in section C., which is the sense I'll deal with in this reply) are set in thermal equilibrium with chaotic fluctuations away from the equilibrium points that persist only…
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> arguments in favor of the Boltzmann Brain are written before the discovery of the Hubble's law (1929) I'm pretty sure the Boltzmann brain paradox is 20th century, likely originating with John D. Barrow and Frank Tipler -- they discuss it in e.g. chapters 6 and 10 of their 1986…
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