Metastable false Vacuum has "neither matter nor space or time", but is a form of wave function referred to as "quantum potential."
In order to understand the Origin of the universe, we need to combine the General Theory of Relativity with quantum theory.
The favored interpretation by most scientists, is that it indicates that the General Theory of Relativity breaks down in the very strong gravitational fields in the early universe. It has to be replaced by a more complete theory. One would expect this anyway, because General Relativity does not take account of the small scale structure of matter, which is governed by quantum theory.
This does not matter normally, because the scale of the universe is enormous compared to the microscopic scales of quantum theory. But when the universe is the Planck size, a billion trillion trillionth of a centimetre, the two scales are the same, and quantum theory has to be taken into account.
According to Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, a small empty space, also called a small true vacuum bubble, can be created probabilistically by quantum fluctuations of the metastable false vacuum. In this case, the early universe would disappear before it grows up. On the other side, if the small bubble expands rapidly to a large enough size, the universe can then be created irreversibly. But if the small bubble cannot expand rapidly, it will disappear soon due to quantum fluctuations.
There should be virtual particle pairs created by quantum fluctuations. Generally speaking, a virtual particle pair will annihilate soon after its birth. But, two virtual particles from a pair can be separated immediately before annihilation due to the exponential expansion of the bubble. Therefore, there would be a large amount of real particles created as vacuum bubble expands exponentially.
This description of exponential growth of a true vacuum bubble corresponds directly to the period of cosmic inflation resulting from the Big Bang. According to this proof, the bubble even stops expanding - or else it may continue to expand at a constant velocity - once it reaches a certain size. Nevertheless, this is a very different version of inflation than those proposed by Guth, Linde and others, in that it doesn't rely on scalar fields, only quantum effects.
References
1) Is All the Universe from Nothing?
2) The Origin of the Universe
3) Spontaneous creation of the Universe from Nothing
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