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Inflation in the universe and time asymmetry

Abstract

I previously argued that the origin of time asymmetry is to be sought in the processes that characterized the very early cosmological epochs, and that the recent inflationary scenario provides a crucial element in our understanding of this origin1. Here, I develop this thesis further, in the light of criticisms by Page2. I argue in particular that any of the “initial states” that appear to be permitted by quantum gravity, if succeeded by a period of inflation, would have wound up the universe to the state from which, as indicated by increasing entropy, it is now winding down.

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Davies, P. Inflation in the universe and time asymmetry. Nature 312, 524–527 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1038/312524a0

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