Proliferation of de Sitter Space

Abstract

I show that de Sitter space disintegrates into an infinite number of copies of itself. This occurs iteratively through a quantum process involving two types of topology change. First a handle is created semiclassically, on which multiple black hole horizons form. Then the black holes evaporate and disappear, splitting the spatial hypersurfaces into large parts. Applied to cosmology, this process leads to the production of a large or infinite number of universes in most models of inflation and yields a new picture of global structure.