Two-Sheeted Universe, Analyticity and the Arrow of Time

Abstract: Our universe seems to be radiation dominated at early times, and vacuum energy dominated at late times. When we consider the maximal analytic extension of this spacetime, its symmetries and complex analytic properties suggest a picture in which spacetime has two sheets, exchanged by an isometry which, in turn, picks a preferred (CPT-symmetric) vacuum state for quantum fields on the spacetime. Previously (arXiv:1803.08928, arXiv:1803.08930), we showed how this line of thought provides new explanations for dark matter, the matter-antimatter asymmetry, the absence of primordial vector and tensor perturbations, and the {\it phase} of the primordial scalar perturbations; and additional testable predictions. In this paper, we develop this picture in several respects and, in particular, point out that it also provides a new explanation for why the thermodynamic arrow of time points away from the bang.