{"paper":{"title":"On quantum creation of a toroidal universe","license":"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/","headline":"","cross_cats":["astro-ph.CO","hep-th"],"primary_cat":"gr-qc","authors_text":"Alan H. Guth, Alexander Vilenkin","submitted_at":"2025-08-12T08:43:04Z","abstract_excerpt":"We consider the quantum creation of a universe with flat spatial sections and the topology of a 3-torus, taking into account the effect of Casimir energy. We show that the corresponding instantons are singular. Since these instantons describe universes originating in a state of infinite energy, we argue that they cannot be interpreted as quantum creation from `nothing'. If quantum corrections to the energy-momentum tensor are neglected, the spacetime of the toroidal universe reduces to de Sitter space with appropriate periodic identifications. Contrary to previous claims in the literature, thi"},"claims":{"count":0,"items":[],"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"source":{"id":"2508.08747","kind":"arxiv","version":2},"verdict":{"id":null,"model_set":{},"created_at":null,"strongest_claim":"","one_line_summary":"","pipeline_version":null,"weakest_assumption":"","pith_extraction_headline":""},"integrity":{"clean":true,"summary":{"advisory":0,"critical":0,"by_detector":{},"informational":0},"endpoint":"/pith/2508.08747/integrity.json","findings":[],"available":true,"detectors_run":[],"snapshot_sha256":"c28c3603d3b5d939e8dc4c7e95fa8dfce3d595e45f758748cecf8e644a296938"},"references":{"count":0,"sample":[],"resolved_work":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57","internal_anchors":0},"formal_canon":{"evidence_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"author_claims":{"count":0,"strong_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"builder_version":"pith-number-builder-2026-05-17-v1"}