Bubble Nucleation and Eternal Inflation

          @misc{ scivideos_PIRSA:06120021,
            doi = {10.48660/06120021},
            url = {https://pirsa.org/06120021},
            author = {Johnson, Matthew},
            keywords = {Cosmology},
            language = {en},
            title = {Bubble Nucleation and Eternal Inflation},
            publisher = {Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics},
            year = {2006},
            month = {dec},
            note = {PIRSA:06120021 see, \url{https://scivideos.org/index.php/pirsa/06120021}}
          }
          

Abstract

A number of mechanisms have been introduced in previous literature that might be responsible for transitions between metastable minima in a scalar field theory coupled to gravity. The connection between these transition mechanisms has remained unclear, and current formulations of eternal inflation only include a subset of the allowed processes. In the first part of this talk, I will discuss how a number of transition mechanisms can be unified in the thin-wall limit, with interesting consequences for quantum cosmology and eternal inflation. I will then discuss making predictions in an eternally inflating universe, and introduce a measure for eternal inflation that is based on transitions rather than vacua.