Pith. sign in

REVIEW 3 cited by

Tunneling wave function of the universe

Not yet reviewed by Pith; the record is open.

Re-run · record.json Download PDF Read on arXiv ↗

This paper has not been read by Pith yet. Machine review is queued; the pith claim, tier, and objections will appear here once it completes.

SPECIMEN: schema-true, not a live event

T0 review · schema-true

One-sentence machine reading of the paper's core claim.

pith:XXXXXXXX · record.json · timestamp

arxiv 1808.02032 v2 pith:F4B7JFN7 submitted 2018-08-06 gr-qc hep-th

Alexander Vilenkin , Masaki Yamada This is my paper · ORCID
classification gr-qchep-th
keywords fieldscalartunnelinguniversewaveapproachboundaryfunction
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal
0 comments
read the original abstract

The tunneling wave function of the universe is investigated in a minisuperspace framework of a de Sitter universe with a quantum scalar field, treated as a perturbation. We consider three different approaches to defining the tunneling wave function: (1) tunneling boundary conditions in superspace, (2) Lorentzian path integral, and (3) quantum tunneling from initial universe of a vanishing size. We show that the superspace approach requires Robin boundary conditions for the scalar field modes, the path integral approach requires adding an appropriate boundary term to the scalar field action, and the initial universe approach requires the initial quantum state of the scalar field to be Euclidean vacuum. We find that all three approaches yield identical wave functions and that scalar field fluctuations are well behaved, contrary to earlier claims in the literature.

Discussion (0). Continue with ORCID to comment.

Forward citations

Cited by 3 Pith papers

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score. Full citation record

  1. A Small-Throat Boundary Condition for the Tunneling Wave Function of the Universe

    gr-qc 2026-07 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    Tunneling wave function of a closed universe is recovered as the ε o0 limit of a Neumann-plus-small-domain path integral with radiation-induced throat, excluding the unsuppressed outer saddle.

  2. Junctions, strings, clocks and gravitational memory in three dimensional dS space

    hep-th 2025-10 conditional novelty 5.0 of 10

    Transient closed-string fluctuations in dS3 are shown order by order to be encoded in gravitational junction shifts at I±, with the monotonic time shift forming an emergent clock.

  3. The Wave Function of the Universe and Inflation

    gr-qc 2025-10 reject novelty 3.0 of 10

    Rearranging the Wheeler-DeWitt equation defines the inflaton potential in terms of an arbitrary wave-function phase and amplitude; nothing constrains that wave function, so the potential is relabeled rather than deriv...

Pith tools