Creation of Universes from the Third-Quantized Vacuum

Abstract

We calculate the average numbers of closed, flat, and open universes spontaneously created from nothing in third quantization. The creation of universes is exponentially suppressed for large values of the kinetic energy of the inflaton, while for small kinetic energies it is exponentially favoured for closed universes over flat and open ones: For a scale of inflation less than about $2 \times 10^{16}$GeV, the ratio of the number of closed universes to either the number of flat or open universes is \begin{equation} \frac{n_{closed}}{n_{flat,open}} \gtrsim 10^{10^{10}} . \nonumber \end{equation}