A Conformal Field Theory for Eternal Inflation

Abstract

The study of the dynamics of the universe is one of the biggest goals in Physics. In this thesis we model our universe as an eternally inflating de Sitter vacuum. To understand this we review the toy model [Freivogel et. al. (2009)], where bubble nucleation creates a fractal arrangement of expanding universes. By making use of ideas from Holography and AdS/CFT, in this model they construct a conformal field theory at a constant time slice for large time. They find that bulk correlation functions in this time slice behave like CFT correlation functions except for a non-analyticity in the 4 point function. In this work we try to correct this non-analyticity by adding quantum fluctuations in the bubble walls. Albeit a full analytical treatment of the system is out of reach, we are confident that this construction is well behaved and therefore we now have more information about a dS/CFT correspondence. This thesis also includes some theoretical background needed to understand these ideas.