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arXiv 1202.1818gr-qcastro-ph.COhep-th
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宇宙学中的测度与概率

Measure and Probability in Cosmology

Joshua S. Schiffrin, Robert M. Wald

摘要:

广义相对论有一个哈密顿公式,它在形式上提供了一个解空间上的正则(刘维尔)测度。在普通统计物理学中,刘维尔测度被用来计算宏观状态的概率,使用广义相对论中产生的类似测度来计算宇宙学中的概率似乎是很自然的,例如宇宙经历暴胀时代的概率。事实上,一些作者已经使用了这种措施的限制空间的均匀和各向同性的宇宙与标量场的物质(minisuperspace)--即吉布斯霍金斯图尔特措施--使有关的可能性通货膨胀的论点。我们认为,在宇宙学中,用广义相对论的测度来进行概率论证至少有四个主要困难:(1)平衡不会发生在宇宙学的长度尺度上。(2)即使在极小超空间的情况下,相空间的测度也是无穷大的,概率的计算很大程度上取决于如何调节无穷大。(3)即使人们只对非常接近均匀的宇宙感兴趣,也必须考虑到非均匀的自由度(我们将说明如何考虑)。该度量取决于无限多个自由度如何被截断,以及如何定义“几乎齐次”。(4)在一个热力学第二定律成立的宇宙中,人们不能利用我们对宇宙目前状态的认识来“追溯”过去条件的可能性。

英文摘要:

General relativity has a Hamiltonian formulation, which formally provides a canonical (Liouville) measure on the space of solutions. In ordinary statistical physics, the Liouville measure is used to compute probabilities of macrostates, and it would seem natural to use the similar measure arising in general relativity to compute probabilities in cosmology, such as the probability that the universe underwent an era of inflation. Indeed, a number of authors have used the restriction of this measure to the space of homogeneous and isotropic universes with scalar field matter (minisuperspace)---namely, the Gibbons-Hawking-Stewart measure---to make arguments about the likelihood of inflation. We argue here that there are at least four major difficulties with using the measure of general relativity to make probability arguments in cosmology: (1) Equilibration does not occur on cosmological length scales. (2) Even in the minisuperspace case, the measure of phase space is infinite and the computation of probabilities depends very strongly on how the infinity is regulated. (3) The inhomogeneous degrees of freedom must be taken into account (we illustrate how) even if one is interested only in universes that are very nearly homogeneous. The measure depends upon how the infinite number of degrees of freedom are truncated, and how one defines "nearly homogeneous." (4) In a universe where the second law of thermodynamics holds, one cannot make use of our knowledge of the present state of the universe to "retrodict" the likelihood of past conditions.

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