Image 1 Caption: "Willem de Sitter (1872--1934), Dutch astronomer." (Slightly edited.)
Features:
The de Sitter universe is a general relativity cosmological model that assumes the cosmological principle and cosmological constant.
The Friedmann equation is dervied from general relativity assuming cosmological principle and the perfect fluid for the mass-energy contents of the universe and allows many cosmological models (including the Einstein universe and the de Sitter universe) do be easily derived.
Einstein and De Sitter had to use klutzier means to derive their cosmological models more directly from the Einstein field equations. Their cosmological models were pioneering works.
Note despite appearances in Image 2, the
exponential function only goes
asymptotically
to zero
as the x coordinates
goes to negative
infinity: i.e., as x → -∞, one has
exp(x) → 0.
The formula for this
cosmic scale factor a(t) is
Also the inflationary era
(cosmic time t = 10**(-36)--10**(-32) estimated)
of inflation cosmology
is a de Sitter universe phase
with some form of
mass-energy
filling the role of a
cosmological constant.
a(t) = a_0 exp(t/t_H) ,
where
exp(x) is exponential function,
t is cosmic time
measured from t = -∞ (i.e., the de Sitter universe has NO
Big Bang and is
eternal in both
directions of
cosmic time),
a_0 is some fiducial scale distance (usually set to 1 for the present epoch),
and
t_H is the Hubble time
for the de Sitter universe.