Primordial Inflation

TL;DR

This paper explores the origins of primordial inflation, linking quantum tunneling, Planck scale degeneracy, and holography, and discusses their implications for the early universe's emergence.

Contribution

It proposes a novel connection between Planck scale degeneracy, quantum tunneling, and holography in the context of primordial inflation.

Findings

Primordial inflation may emerge from Planck cell fluctuations.

A large degeneracy at the Planck scale is necessary for inflation.

Holography and inflation may be fundamentally incompatible.

Abstract

A macroscopic universe may emerge naturally from a Planck cell fluctuation by unfolding through a stage of exponential expansion towards a homogeneous cosmological background. Such primordial inflation requires a large and presumably infinite degeneracy at the Planck scale, rooted in the unbounded negative gravitational energy stored in conformal classes. This complex Planck structure is consistent with a quantum tunneling description of the transition from the Planck scale to the inflationary era and implies, in the limit of vanishing Planck size, the Hartle-Hawking no-time boundary condition. On the other hand, string theory give credence to the holographic principle and the concomitant depletion of states at the Planck scale. The apparent incompatibility of primordial inflation with holography either invalidates one of these two notions or relegates the nature of the Planck size outside the realm of quantum physics, as we know it.