Emergent Spacetime and Cosmic Inflation

Abstract: We present a novel background-independent framework for cosmic inflation, starting with a matrix model. In this framework, inflation is portrayed as a dynamic process responsible for the generation of both space and time. This stands in contrast to conventional inflation, which is characterized as a mere (exponential) expansion of an already existing spacetime, driven by the vacuum energy associated with an inflaton field. We observe that the cosmic inflation is triggered by the condensate of Planck energy into vacuum and responsible for the dynamical emergence of spacetime. The emergent spacetime picture admits a background-independent formulation so that the inflation is described by a conformal Hamiltonian system which requires neither an inflaton field nor an ad hoc inflation potential. This implies that the emergent spacetime may incapacitate all the rationales to introduce the multiverse hypothesis.