Charged false vacuum bubbles and the AdS/CFT correspondence

We initiate a study of cosmology within the framework of Maldacena's AdS/CF T correspondence. We present a comprehensive analysis of the classical moti on of a charged domain wall that separates an external Reissner-Nordstrom r egion of spacetime (with small or vanishing cosmological constant) from an internal de-Sitter region. The possible associated spacetime diagrams are d rawn, although in the classical case, an unambiguous prediction of what occ urs at late times in the interior region is not possible, since singulariti es and Cauchy horizons form. We argue that, when the asymptotic region is a nti-de Sitter, the AdS/CFT correspondence gives a prescription for resolvin g the curvature singularities and evolving solutions across the expected Ca uchy horizon. Some of our solutions contain inflating interiors, and we pro vide evidence these can be patched onto solutions with smooth initial data, circumventing an obstacle found by Farhi and Guth to creating an inflating universe in the laboratory.