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Wormhole Nucleation from Anti-de Sitter vs Vilenkin's Tunneling from Nothing

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Quantum Tunneling Origin · within family

	Wormhole Nucleation from Anti-de Sitter Speculative	Vilenkin's Tunneling from Nothing Speculative
Proposed	2024 / 2026	1982
Key figures	Panos Betzios, Olga Papadoulaki, George Lavrelashvili, Jean-Luc Lehners	Alexander Vilenkin
In one sentence	A wave function for the universe in which a Euclidean wormhole, anchored in an anti-de Sitter region, gives birth to an expanding universe that begins with inflation.	Vilenkin proposed in 1982 that the universe quantum-tunneled into existence from a state with no space, no time, no fields, literal nothing.
Predictions	A small shift and faint oscillations in the [[cosmic microwave background]] on the largest angular scales, with a size set by the wormhole's charge Short-wavelength fluctuations identical to those of standard inflation, so the signature appears only on the largest scales Wormholes with small charge give a longer phase of inflation than wormholes with large charge	[[Inflation]] begins naturally with high probability after tunneling Universe is initially small, closed, and de Sitter-like No contracting phase before the Bang
Where it breaks	Lavrelashvili and Lehners find that no-boundary instantons still dominate the overall probability, which weakens the case that wormholes are the preferred beginning. The universe needs a parent anti-de Sitter or flat region to emerge from, which moves the question of origins back one step. The predicted signal sits on the largest scales of the sky, where there are too few independent patches to measure it precisely.	Krauss: still requires quantum laws, so not really nothing Hawking & Bousso (1995): catastrophic particle production Penrose: ignores Weyl curvature hypothesis
Key unresolved problem	Which beginning wins: the wormhole, or the no-boundary instanton it turns into at zero charge. Current calculations still favour no-boundary overall, so the wormhole route needs a reason to be selected.	The laws-from-nothing problem: the quantum tunneling that creates the universe still needs quantum laws and a space of possible states to work in, so the proposal has not truly started from nothing.
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Wormhole Nucleation from Anti-de Sitter

2024 / 2026 · Speculative

Vilenkin's Tunneling from Nothing

1982 · Speculative

Proposed

2024 / 2026

1982

Key figures

Panos Betzios, Olga Papadoulaki, George Lavrelashvili, Jean-Luc Lehners

Alexander Vilenkin

In one sentence

A wave function for the universe in which a Euclidean wormhole, anchored in an anti-de Sitter region, gives birth to an expanding universe that begins with inflation.

Vilenkin proposed in 1982 that the universe quantum-tunneled into existence from a state with no space, no time, no fields, literal nothing.

Predictions

A small shift and faint oscillations in the [[cosmic microwave background]] on the largest angular scales, with a size set by the wormhole's charge
Short-wavelength fluctuations identical to those of standard inflation, so the signature appears only on the largest scales
Wormholes with small charge give a longer phase of inflation than wormholes with large charge

[[Inflation]] begins naturally with high probability after tunneling
Universe is initially small, closed, and de Sitter-like
No contracting phase before the Bang

Where it breaks

Lavrelashvili and Lehners find that no-boundary instantons still dominate the overall probability, which weakens the case that wormholes are the preferred beginning.
The universe needs a parent anti-de Sitter or flat region to emerge from, which moves the question of origins back one step.
The predicted signal sits on the largest scales of the sky, where there are too few independent patches to measure it precisely.

Krauss: still requires quantum laws, so not really nothing
Hawking & Bousso (1995): catastrophic particle production
Penrose: ignores Weyl curvature hypothesis

Key unresolved problem

Which beginning wins: the wormhole, or the no-boundary instanton it turns into at zero charge. Current calculations still favour no-boundary overall, so the wormhole route needs a reason to be selected.

The laws-from-nothing problem: the quantum tunneling that creates the universe still needs quantum laws and a space of possible states to work in, so the proposal has not truly started from nothing.

Reader vote

0% · 0 votes

100% · 2 votes