The Universe Can Not Be a Free Lunch 12094

| The total energy of the universe is deenite positive even for extremely relativistic matter. Hence its origin demands a violation of physical laws. The innationary model which tries to justify an innnite age for the universe is criticized from both a theoretical and observational point of view. Since all the other theories that tried to have a universe existing for ever in the past have been disproved, we may conclude that it is highly probable that the past life of the universe is nite. PACS 98.80 { Cosmology. The rather recent paper of Stenger's 1] is the clearest and simplest attempt to show that the universe is the ultimate free lunch. In fact, the author assumes that the universe could have begun from a state of zero energy and maximum entropy according to the innationary model. In the present paper we do not discuss the second law of thermodynamics because it is suucient to show that the total energy of the universe is diierent from zero. Moreover we criticize the innationary model which would imply the appearance of the universe from the quantum uctuation of a vacuum with weird properties. Consequently, we reaarm the validity of common sense and of the relevant conclusions of nineteenth century physics. The discovery of the cosmological expansion has reinforced Jeans's idea that the past life of the universe if nite and has allowed us to quantify it: roughly 15 billion years. 2. { The total energy of the universe is positive deenite One of the arguments used by the supporters of the \universe from nothing" is that its total energy be zero so that its appearance does not violate energy conservation. The energy of the vacuum would have been zero and such did the energy of the universe remain. Some authors were familiar with Cartan's achievement that general relativity and Newton's theory lead to the same result if applied to a uniform and isotropically c Societ a Italiana di Fisica 1207