Cosmic Inflation and the Arrow of Time – Andreas Albrecht

Date: Thu. May 2nd, 2002, 4:15 pm-5:15 pm
Location: Rockefeller 301

Cosmic inflation claims to make the initial conditions of the standard big bang “generic”. But Boltzmann taught us that the arrow of time arises from very non-generic (“low entropy”) initial conditions. I discuss how to reconcile these perspectives. The resulting insights give an interesting way to understand and compare inflation and other ideas that purport to offer alternatives to inflation.