Charged false vacuum bubbles and the AdS/CFT correspondence

We initiate a study of cosmology within the framework of Maldacena's AdS/CFT correspondence. We present a comprehensive analysis of the classical motion of a charged domain wall that separates an external Reissner-Nordstrom region of spacetime (with small or vanishing cosmological constant) from an internal de-Sitter region. The possible associated spacetime diagrams are drawn, although in the classical case, an unambiguous prediction of what occurs at late times in the interior region is not possible, since singularities and Cauchy horizons form. We argue that, when the asymptotic region is anti-de Sitter, the AdS/CFT correspondence gives a prescription for resolving the curvature singularities and evolving solutions across the expected Cauchy horizon. Some of our solutions contain inflating interiors, and we provide 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.