Why anthropic reasoning cannot predict Lambda.
We revisit anthropic arguments purporting to explain the measured value of the cosmological constant. We argue that different ways of assigning probabilities to candidate universes lead to totally different anthropic predictions. As an explicit example, we show that weighting different universes by...
| मुख्य लेखकों: | , |
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| स्वरूप: | Journal article |
| भाषा: | English |
| प्रकाशित: |
2006
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| _version_ | 1826295490816245760 |
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| author | Starkman, G Trotta, R |
| author_facet | Starkman, G Trotta, R |
| author_sort | Starkman, G |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | We revisit anthropic arguments purporting to explain the measured value of the cosmological constant. We argue that different ways of assigning probabilities to candidate universes lead to totally different anthropic predictions. As an explicit example, we show that weighting different universes by the total number of possible observations leads to an extremely small probability for observing a value of Lambda equal to or greater than what we now measure. We conclude that anthropic reasoning within the framework of probability as frequency is ill-defined and that in the absence of a fundamental motivation for selecting one weighting scheme over another the anthropic principle cannot be used to explain the value of Lambda, nor, likely, any other physical parameters. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T04:01:50Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:c4d52a7d-df19-44a2-9fa5-843bcfc7150f |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T04:01:50Z |
| publishDate | 2006 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:c4d52a7d-df19-44a2-9fa5-843bcfc7150f2022-03-27T06:26:32ZWhy anthropic reasoning cannot predict Lambda.Journal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:c4d52a7d-df19-44a2-9fa5-843bcfc7150fEnglishSymplectic Elements at Oxford2006Starkman, GTrotta, RWe revisit anthropic arguments purporting to explain the measured value of the cosmological constant. We argue that different ways of assigning probabilities to candidate universes lead to totally different anthropic predictions. As an explicit example, we show that weighting different universes by the total number of possible observations leads to an extremely small probability for observing a value of Lambda equal to or greater than what we now measure. We conclude that anthropic reasoning within the framework of probability as frequency is ill-defined and that in the absence of a fundamental motivation for selecting one weighting scheme over another the anthropic principle cannot be used to explain the value of Lambda, nor, likely, any other physical parameters. |
| spellingShingle | Starkman, G Trotta, R Why anthropic reasoning cannot predict Lambda. |
| title | Why anthropic reasoning cannot predict Lambda. |
| title_full | Why anthropic reasoning cannot predict Lambda. |
| title_fullStr | Why anthropic reasoning cannot predict Lambda. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Why anthropic reasoning cannot predict Lambda. |
| title_short | Why anthropic reasoning cannot predict Lambda. |
| title_sort | why anthropic reasoning cannot predict lambda |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT starkmang whyanthropicreasoningcannotpredictlambda AT trottar whyanthropicreasoningcannotpredictlambda |