We argue that the emergent spacetime picture admits a background-independent formulation of cosmic inflation. The inflation in this picture corresponds to the dynamical emergence of spacetime while the conventional inflation is simply an (exponential) expansion of a preexisting spacetime owing to the vacuum energy carried by an inflaton field. We show that the cosmic inflation arises as a time-dependent solution of the mar trix quantum mechanics describing the dynamical process of Planck energy condensate in vacuum without introducing any inflaton field as well as an ad hoc inflation potential. Thus the emergent spacetime picture realizes a background-independent description of the inflationary universe which has a sufficiently elegant and explanatory power to defend the integrity of physics against the multiverse hypothesis.
展开▼
