A Smooth Exit from Eternal Inflation?

TL;DR

This paper proposes a dual description of eternal inflation using a deformed Euclidean CFT, suggesting that the exit from eternal inflation is finite and smooth rather than fractal-like.

Contribution

It introduces a novel dual Euclidean CFT framework to analyze eternal inflation and conjectures a finite, smooth exit instead of an infinite multiverse.

Findings

Amplitude is low for non-conformal surfaces

Amplitude is nearly zero for negatively curved surfaces

Exit from eternal inflation is likely finite and smooth

Abstract

The usual theory of inflation breaks down in eternal inflation. We derive a dual description of eternal inflation in terms of a deformed Euclidean CFT located at the threshold of eternal inflation. The partition function gives the amplitude of different geometries of the threshold surface in the no-boundary state. Its local and global behavior in dual toy models shows that the amplitude is low for surfaces which are not nearly conformal to the round three-sphere and essentially zero for surfaces with negative curvature. Based on this we conjecture that the exit from eternal inflation does not produce an infinite fractal-like multiverse, but is finite and reasonably smooth.