title: Is our Universe natural?
abstract: It goes without saying that we are stuck with the Universe we have. Nevertheless, we would like to go beyond simply describing our observed Universe, and try to understand why it is that way rather than some other way. When considering both the state in which we find our current Universe, and the laws of physics it obeys, we discover features that seem remarkably unnatural to us. Physicists and cosmologists have been exploring increasingly ambitious ideas in an attempt to explain how surprising aspects of our Universe can arise from simple dynamical principles.
authors.affiliation: Enrico Fermi Institute, Department of Physics and Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago, 5640 South Ellis Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA. carroll@theory.uchicago.edu
authors.forename: Sean M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Carroll