Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: We show that the Kontsevich-Segal-Witten (KSW) criterion applied to the no-boundary state constrains anisotropic deformations of de Sitter space. We consider squashed S 3 and S 1 × S 2 boundaries and find that, in both models, the KSW criterion excludes a significant range of homogeneous but anisotropic configurations. For squashed S 3 boundaries, the excluded range includes all surface geometries with negative scalar curvature, in line with dS/CFT reasoning. For S 1 × S 2 boundaries, we find that KSW selects the low-temperature regime of configuration space where the S 1 is sufficiently large compared to the S 2 . In both models, the KSW criterion renders the semiclassical wave function normalizable, up to one-loop effects.
Authors: Thomas Hertog, Oliver Janssen, Joel Karlsson
Institutions: KU Leuven, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
Language: English
Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4407193600