The Wave Function of the Universe and CMB Fluctuations

Abstract

The Hartle-Hawking and Tunneling (Vilenkin) wave functions are treated in the Hamiltonian formalism. We find that the leading (i.e. quadratic) terms in the fluctuations around a maximally symmetric background, are indeed Gaussian (rather than inverse Gaussian), for both types of wave function, when properly interpreted. However the suppression of non-Gaussianities and hence the recovery of the Bunch-Davies state is not transparent.

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