How many universes are in the multiverse?

Andrei Linde, Vitaly Vanchurin

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

26 Scopus citations

Abstract

We argue that the total number of distinguishable locally Friedmann "universes" generated by eternal inflation is proportional to the exponent of the entropy of inflationary perturbations and is limited by ee3N, where N is the number of e-folds of slow-roll posteternal inflation. For simplest models of chaotic inflation, N is approximately equal to de Sitter entropy at the end of eternal inflation; it can be exponentially large. However, not all of these universes can be observed by a local observer. In the presence of a cosmological constant Λ the number of distinguishable universes is bounded by e|Λ|-3/4. In the context of the string theory landscape, the overall number of different universes is expected to be exponentially greater than the total number of vacua in the landscape. We discuss the possibility that the strongest constraint on the number of distinguishable universes may be related not to the properties of the multiverse but to the properties of observers.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number083525
JournalPhysical Review D - Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology
Volume81
Issue number8
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 20 2010

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'How many universes are in the multiverse?'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this