A Possible Solution to the Horizon Problem: The Mad Era for Massless Scalar Theories of Gravity

Abstract

Extensions of Einstein gravity which allow the gravitational constant $G$ to change with time as the universe evolves may provide a resolution to the horizon problem without invoking a period of vacuum domination and without the subsequent entropy violation. In a cosmology for which the gravitational constant is not in fact constant, the universe may be older at a given temperature than in a standard Hot Big Bang universe; thus, larger regions of space could have come into causal contact at that temperature. This opens the possibility that large regions became smooth at some high temperature without violating causality. The extra aging of the universe can be accomplished by an early period with a large Planck mass, a period we call the MAD era (Modified Aging era or the Massively Aged and Detained era). We discuss in this paper theories of gravity in which the gravitational constant is replaced with a function of a scalar field. However, this resolution to the smoothness problem