[The University of Texas at Austin: What starts here changes the world]
Theory Group
Theory Group Seminar, 03 February 2009


Dr. Spencer Chang, University of California, Davis

The Cosmological Observables When Worlds Collide

abstract

Although cosmology is in principle sensitive to new high energy physics, such effects are typically suppressed to unobservable levels due to cosmic inflation. In this talk, I consider the potentially observable signal of Coleman-de Luccia bubble collisions during eternal inflation. The kinematics of two bubbles colliding can be solved analytically, which affects the survival probability of different vacua. For an observer undergoing a collision, isotropy is broken, with effects depending on the angle pointing towards the other bubble. Under some approximations, I analyze the effects on the cosmic microwave background, predicting that anomalous hot or cold spots as well as hemispherical power asymmetries can occur.



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