How to create a universe

The purpose of this paper is (i) to expound the specification of a universe, according to those parts of mathematical physics which have been experimentally and observationally verified in our own universe; and (ii) to expound the possible means of creating a universe in the laboratory. 1 Universe specification According to modern mathematical theoretical physics, the specification of a physical universe can be broken down into the following: 1. Specify a space-time. 2. Specify a set of gauge fields. 3. Specify a set of elementary particles, and partition them into a finite number of generations. 4. Specify the strengths of the gauge fields. 5. Specify the couplings between the gauge fields and the elementary particles. 6. Specify the direct (‘Yukawa’) couplings between elementary particles. 7. Specify the mixing between the elementary particles in different generations. 8. Specify cosmological parameters corresponding to the initial conditions for the universe. This list is based upon the understanding gleaned from general relativistic cosmology and the standard model of particle physics, the latter being an application of quantum field theory. Both these theories are empirically verified. I do not intend to consider how one might define a physical universe according to speculative theories such as string theory or supersymmetry. Note also that these specifications are not necessarily independent; for example, the parameters