Stochastic Eternal Inflation in a Bianchi Type I Universe

Abstract

The phenomenon of stochastic eternal inflation is studied for a chaotic inflation potential in a Bianchi Type I spacetime background. After deriving the appropriate stochastic Klein-Gordon equation, we give details on the conditions for eternal inflation. It is shown that for eternal inflation to occur, the amount of anisotropy must be small. In fact, it is shown that eternal inflation will only take place if the shear anisotropy variables take on values within a small region of the interior of the Kasner circle. We then calculate the probability of eternal inflation occurring based on techniques from stochastic calculus.