The End of Eternal Inflation

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new measure for eternal inflation that accounts for both large field fluctuations and homogeneous domains, demonstrating that inflation ends finitely due to increasing inhomogeneities, challenging the notion of eternal inflation.

Contribution

It proposes a novel measure incorporating background inhomogeneities, showing that eternal inflation cannot persist indefinitely due to fractal growth of inhomogeneities.

Findings

Self-reproduction of inflation stops at finite time t_f

Inhomogeneities grow fractally, preventing eternal inflation

Inflation is finite, not eternal, under the new measure

Abstract

We propose a new measure for eternal inflation that includes both conditions, large field fluctuations and smooth homogeneous domains, in the self reproducing probability estimate. We show that due to the increasing inhomogeneities in the background spacetime fractal, self-reproduction stops within a finite time t_f, thus inflation can not be eternal.