I Inflation and density perturbations

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Estimating the rate of false vacuum decay in the inflationary universe through density perturbations from the big bang is considered unlikely. While cosmic bubble collisions may be detectable in the cosmic microwave background (CMB), definitive evidence of such collisions has not been found. If these collisions were detected, they could help limit the number of false vacua and inform decay rates. The relationship between the phase transition dynamics and density perturbation characteristics is contingent on whether the transition is first- or second-order. Overall, current CMB data does not provide a reliable method for estimating false vacuum decay.
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Is it possible to estimate the rate of false vacuum decay in the inflationary universe by looking at the density perturbations in the big bang universe?
 
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Ranku said:
Is it possible to estimate the rate of false vacuum decay in the inflationary universe by looking at the density perturbations in the big bang universe?
Maybe, but it's unlikely.

There is the outside possibility that cosmic bubble collisions could be visible in the CMB. Here's a blog post about a paper that looks into this possibility:
https://www.earlyuniverse.org/simulating-cosmic-bubble-collisions-in-full-general-relativity/

So far, there hasn't been a definitive detection of the ring-like structure which would signal such a collision, so there probably won't ever be. If we had gotten lucky and could detect a number of these kinds of collisions, that would place limits on the number of false vacua in our past light cone, which might be useful in determining how often they decay. But with no detection, the answer is that it's probably impossible to know from the CMB data.
 
Depends. First- or second-order transition?

If the latter, then there is a direct connection between the shape of the potential, i.e. the dynamics of the phase transition, and the characteristics of the density perturbations.
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recombination_(cosmology) Was a matter density right after the decoupling low enough to consider the vacuum as the actual vacuum, and not the medium through which the light propagates with the speed lower than ##({\epsilon_0\mu_0})^{-1/2}##? I'm asking this in context of the calculation of the observable universe radius, where the time integral of the inverse of the scale factor is multiplied by the constant speed of light ##c##.
The formal paper is here. The Rutgers University news has published a story about an image being closely examined at their New Brunswick campus. Here is an excerpt: Computer modeling of the gravitational lens by Keeton and Eid showed that the four visible foreground galaxies causing the gravitational bending couldn’t explain the details of the five-image pattern. Only with the addition of a large, invisible mass, in this case, a dark matter halo, could the model match the observations...
Hi, I’m pretty new to cosmology and I’m trying to get my head around the Big Bang and the potential infinite extent of the universe as a whole. There’s lots of misleading info out there but this forum and a few others have helped me and I just wanted to check I have the right idea. The Big Bang was the creation of space and time. At this instant t=0 space was infinite in size but the scale factor was zero. I’m picturing it (hopefully correctly) like an excel spreadsheet with infinite...

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