The phase transition to eternal inflation

Paolo Creminelli, Sergei Dubovsky, Alberto Nicolis, Leonardo Senatore, Matias Zaldarriaga

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review


    For slow-roll inflation we study the phase transition to the eternal regime. Starting from a finite inflationary volume, we consider the volume of the universe at reheating as order parameter. We show that there exists a critical value for the classical inflaton speed, 2/H 4 = 3/(2π 2), where the probability distribution for the reheating volume undergoes a sharp transition. In particular, for sub-critical inflaton speeds all distribution moments become infinite. We show that at the same transition point the system develops a non-vanishing probability of having a strictly infinite reheating volume, while retaining a finite probability for finite values. Our analysis represents the exact quantum treatment of the system at lowest order in the slow-roll parameters and H 2/M Pl 2.

    Original languageEnglish (US)
    Article number036
    JournalJournal of High Energy Physics
    Issue number9
    StatePublished - Sep 1 2008


    • Cosmology of theories beyond the SM
    • Space-time symmetries
    • Spacetime singularities

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Nuclear and High Energy Physics


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