Is our Universe likely to decay within 20 billion years?

Journal Article · Mon Sep 15 00:00:00 EDT 2008 · Physical Review. D, Particles Fields

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVD.78.063535· OSTI ID:21250843

Page, Don N ^[1]

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1. Institute for Theoretical Physics Department of Physics, University of Alberta, Room 238 CEB, 11322-89 Avenue Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2G7 (Canada)

Observations that we are highly unlikely to be vacuum fluctuations suggest that our universe is decaying at a rate faster than the asymptotic volume growth rate, in order that there not be too many observers produced by vacuum fluctuations to make our observations highly atypical. An asymptotic linear e-folding time of roughly 16 Gyr (deduced from current measurements of cosmic acceleration) would then imply that our universe is more likely than not to decay within a time that is less than 19 Gyr in the future.

• OSTI ID: 21250843
• Journal Information: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields, Vol. 78, Issue 6; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.78.063535; (c) 2008 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ACCELERATION
ASYMPTOTIC SOLUTIONS
FLUCTUATIONS
UNIVERSE