Fine tuned bibliography

David H. Bailey, editor
Updated 28 November 2022 (c) 2022

Is the universe fine-tuned for intelligent life? This is emerging as one of the most important questions of modern science. The more researchers analyze the fundamental laws of physics, and the characteristics of the universe about us, the more perplexing these questions become. For additional discussion, see Fine-tuned on this site, or, for a longer overview treatment, see A Fortunate Universe: Life in a Finely Tuned Cosmos [Lewis2016] and an accompanying technical paper by Barnes [Barnes2013].

This is a partial bibliography of books, articles and collections dealing with fine-tuning. Items are listed alphabetically by label. Some of the online items may require a paid fee or subscription. All online links were checked and updated as needed on 27 March 2022 or more recently, but if you note errors or encounter dead online links, please notify the editor.

  1. [Agrawal1998] Vikas Agrawal, Stephen M. Barr, John F. Donoghue and David Seckel, "The anthropic principle and the mass scale of the standard model," Physical Review Letters, vol. 80 (1998), pg. 1822-1825, available at PDF.
  2. [Aguirre2009] Anthony Aguirre, "Making predictions in a multiverse: conundrums, dangers, coincidences," 2009, in [Carr2009].
  3. [Baggott2013] Jim Baggott, Farewell to Reality: How Modern Physics Has Betrayed the Search for Scientific Truth, Pegasus Books, London, 2014.
  4. [Banks2001] Tom Banks, Michael Dine and Lubos Motl, "On anthropic solutions of the cosmological constant problem," Journal of High Energy Physics, vol. 2001 (14 Feb 2001), available at PDF.
  5. [Barnes2013] Luke A. Barnes, "The fine-tuning of the universe for intelligent life," Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia, vol. 29 (2 Jan 2013), pg. 529-564, available at PDF.
  6. [Barnes2015] Luke A. Barnes, "Binding the diproton in stars: anthropic limits on the strength of gravity," Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 29 Dec 2015, available at PDF.
  7. [Barnes2017] Luke A. Barnes and Geraint F. Lewis, "Producing the deuteron in stars: anthropic limits on fundamental constants," Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, vol. 2017 (Jul 2017), available at PDF.
  8. [Barnes2018] Luke A. Barnes, Pascal J. Elahi, Jaime Salcido, Richard G. Bower, Geraint F. Lewis, Tom Theuns, Matthieu Schaller, Robert A. Crain and Joop Schaye, "Galaxy formation efficiency and the multiverse explanation of the cosmological constant with EAGLE simulations," Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 477 (Jul 2018), pg. 3727-3743, available at PDF.
  9. [Barr2007] Stephen M. Barr, "Anthropic tuning of the weak scale and of m(u)/m(d) in two-Higgs-doublet models," Physical Review D, vol. 76 (2007), 045002, available at PDF.
  10. [Barrow1986] John D. Barrow and Frank J. Tipler, The Anthropic Cosmological Principle, Oxford University Press, New York, 1986.
  11. [Barrow2008] John D. Barrow, Simon Conway Morris, Stephen J. Freeland and Charles L. Harper, Jr., ed., Fitness of the Cosmos for Life: Biochemistry and Fine-Tuning, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2008.
  12. [Barrow2008a] John D. Barrow, "Chemistry and sensitivity," 2008, in [Barrow2008].
  13. [Barrow2009] John Barrow, "Living in a simulated universe," 2009, in [Carr2009].
  14. [Bjorken2001] James D. Bjorken, "Standard model parameters and the cosmological constant," Physical Review D, vol. 64 (25 Sep 2001), pg. 085008, available at PDF.
  15. [Bjorken2009] James D. Bjorken, "The definition and classification of universes," 2009, in [Carr2009].
  16. [Bostrom2009] Nick Bostrom, "Observation selection theory and cosmological fine-tuning," 2009, in [Carr2009].
  17. [Bousso2009] Raphael Bousso, Lawrence J. Hall, Yasunori Nomura, "Multiverse understanding of cosmological coincidences," Physical Review D, vol. 80 (2009), 063510, available at PDF.
  18. [ArXiv manuscript>, 6 Oct 2022, available at PDF.
  19. [Bradford2011] R. A. W. Bradford, "The inevitability of fine tuning in a complex universe," International Journal of Theoretical Physics, vol. 50 (2011), pg. 1577-1601, available at PDF.
  20. [Cahn1996] Robert Cahn, "The eighteen arbitrary parameters of the standard model in your everyday life," Reviews of Modern Physics, vol. 68 (1996), pg. 951, available at PDF.
  21. [Carr1979] Bernard J. Carr and Martin J. Rees, "The anthropic principle and the structure of the physical world," Nature, vol. 278 (12 Apr 1979), available at PDF.
  22. [Carr2009] Bernard Carr, Universe or Multiverse, Cambridge University Press, UK, 2009.
  23. [Carr2009a] Bernard Carr, "The anthropic principle revisited," 2009, in [Carr2009].
  24. [Carroll2010] Sean M. Carroll and Heywood Tam, "Unitary evolution and cosmological fine-tuning," manuscript, 8 July 2010, available at PDF.
  25. [Carter1974] Brandon Carter, "Large number coincidences and the anthropic principle in cosmology," in Confrontation of Cosmological Theories with Observation, M. S. Longair, ed., Reidel, Dordrecht, Netherlands, 1974.
  26. [Carter2009] Brandon Carter, "Micro-anthropic principle for quantum theory," 2009, in [Carr2009].
  27. [ChelaFlores2008] Julian Chela-Flores, "Fitness of the cosmos for the origin and evolution of life: from biochemical fine tuning to the anthropic principle," 2008, in [Barrow2008].
  28. [Clavelli2006] Louis J. Clavelli and Raymond E. White III, "Problems in a weakless universe," 2006, available at PDF.
  29. [Cossins2018] Daniel Cossins, "Truth before beauty: Our universe is uglier than we thought," New Scientist, 28 Feb 2018, available at HTML.
  30. [Damour2008] Thibault Damour and John F. Donoghue, "Constraints on the variability of quark masses from nuclear binding," Physical Review D, vol. 78 (2008), 014014, available at PDF.
  31. [Davies2007] Paul C. W. Davies, Cosmic Jackpot: Why Our Universe is Just Right for Life, Houghton-Mifflin Co., New York, 2007.
  32. [Davies2008] Paul C. W. Davies, "Fitness and the cosmic environment," 2008, in [Barrow2008].
  33. [Davies2009] Paul C. W. Davies, "Universes galore: where will it all end?," 2009, in [Carr2009].
  34. [Deutsch1997] David Deutsch, The Fabric of Reality: The Science of Parallel Universes and Its Implications, Viking, New York, 1997.
  35. [Deutsch2011] David Deutsch, The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations that Transform the World, Viking, New York, 2011.
  36. [Dimopoulos2009] Savas Dimopoulos and Scott Thomas, "The anthropic principle, dark energy and the LHC," 2009, in [Carr2009].
  37. [Donoghue2000] John F. Donoghue, "Random values of the cosmological constant," Journal of High Energy Physics, vol. 2000 (18 Sep 2000), available at PDF.
  38. [Donoghue2001] John F. Donoghue, "Random values of the physical parameters," International Journal of Modern Physics, A16S1C (2001), pg. 902-904, available at PDF.
  39. [Donoghue2009] John F. Donoghue, "The fine-tuning problems of particle physics and anthropic mechanisms," 2009, in [Carr2009].
  40. [Donoghue2016] John F. Donoghue, "The multiverse and particle physics," Annual Review of Nuclear and Particle Physics, vol. 66 (Oct 2016), pg. 1-21, available at PDF.
  41. [Dyson1979] Freeman Dyson, Disturbing the Universe, Harper and Row, New York, 1979.
  42. [Ekstrom2010] Sylvia Ekstrom, Alain Coc, Pierre Descouvemont, Georges Meynet, Keith A. Olive, Jean-Phillipe Uzan and Elizabeth Vangioni, "Effects of the variation of fundamental constants on Population III stellar evolution," Astronomy and Astrophysics, vol. 514 (2010), A62, available at PDF.
  43. [Ellis2009] George Ellis, "Multiverses: description, uniqueness and testing," 2009, in [Carr2009].
  44. [Ellis2011] George F. R. Ellis, "Does the multiverse really exist?," Scientific American, 1 Aug 2011, available at HTML.
  45. [Ellis2014] George Ellis and Joseph Silk, "Scientific method: Defend the integrity of physics," Nature, vol. 516 (16 Dec 2014), available at HTML.
  46. [Epelbaum2013] Evgeny Epelbaum, Hermann Krebs, Timo A. Lahde, Dean Lee and Ulf-G. Meisner, "Viability of carbon-based life as a function of the light quark mass," Physics Review Letters, vol. 110 (2013), 112502, available at PDF.
  47. [Feldstein2005] Brian Feldstein, Lawrence J. Hall and Taizan Watari, "Density perturbations and the cosmological constant from inflationary landscapes," Physical Review D, vol. 72 (2005), 123506, available at PDF.
  48. [Garriga1999] Jaume Garriga, Mario Livio and Alexander Vilenkin, "Cosmological constant and the time of its dominance," Physical Review D, vol. 61 (1999), 023503, available at PDF.
  49. [Garriga2000] Jaume Garriga and Alexander Vilenkin, "On likely values of the cosmological constant," Physical Review D, vol. 61 (2000), pg. 083502, available at PDF.
  50. [Garriga2001] Jaume Garriga and Alexander Vilenkin, "Solutions to the cosmological constant problems," Physical Review D, vol. 64 (2001), pg. 023517, available at PDF.
  51. [Gedalia2011] Oram Gedalia, Alejandro Jenkins and Gilad Perez, "Why do we observe a weak force? The hierarchy problem in the multiverse," Physical Review D, vol. 83 (2011), 115020, available at PDF.
  52. [Gibbons2008] Gary W. Gibbons and Neil Turok, "Measure problem in cosmology," Physical Review D, vol. 77 (2008), 063516, available at PDF.
  53. [Golowich2008] Eugene Golowich, "Unbinding the deuteron," 27 Mar 2008, available at PDF.
  54. [Graesser2004] Michael L. Graesser, Stephen D. S. Hsu, Alejandro Jenkins and Mark B. Wise, "Anthropic distribution for cosmological constant and primordial density perturbations," Physics Letters B, vol. 600 (2004), pg. 15-21, available at PDF.
  55. [Greene2011] Brian Greene, The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos, Knopf, New York, 2011.
  56. [Guth1997] Alan H. Guth, The Inflationary Universe, Helix Books, New York, 1997.
  57. [Guth2007] Alan H. Guth, "Eternal inflation and its implications," Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical, 6 Jun 2007, available at PDF.
  58. [Hall2008] Lawrence J. Hall and Yasunori Nomura, "Evidence for the multiverse in the standard model and beyond," Physical Review D, vol. 78 (2008), 035001, available at PDF.
  59. [Hall2014] Lawrence J. Hall, David Pinner and Joshua T. Ruderman, "The weak scale from BBN [big bang nucleosynthesis]," Journal of High Energy Physics, vol. 134 (Dec 2014), available at PDF.
  60. [Harnik2006] Roni Harnik, Graham D. Kribs and Gilad Perez, "A universe without weak interactions," Physical Review D, vol. 74 (2006), 035006, available at PDF.
  61. [Harrison2011] Edward Harrison, Masks of the Universe: Changing Ideas on the Nature of the Cosmos, Cambridge University Press, UK, 2011.
  62. [Hartle2009] James B. Hartle, "Anthropic reasoning and quantum cosmology," 2009, in [Carr2009].
  63. [Hawking2009] Stephen Hawking, "Cosmology from the top down," 2009, in [Carr2009].
  64. [Hawking2010] Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow, The Grand Design, Bantam Books, New York, 2010.
  65. [Hogan2000] Craig J. Hogan, "Why the universe is just so," Reviews of Modern Physics, vol. 72 (2000), pg. 1149, available at PDF.
  66. [Hogan2009] Craig J. Hogan, "Quarks, electrons and atoms in closely related universes," 2009, in [Carr2009].
  67. [Holder2013] Rodney Holder, Big Bang, Big God: A Universe Designed for Life?, Lion, Oxford, 2013.
  68. [Hollands2002] Stefan Hollands, Robert M. Wald, "Comment on inflation and alternative cosmology," 2002, available at PDF.
  69. [Hossenfelder2018] Sabine Hossenfelder, Lost in Math: How Beauty Leads Physics Astray, Basic Books, New York, 2018.
  70. [Hoyle1981a] Fred Hoyle, "The universe: Past and present reflections," Engineering and Science, November 1981, pg. 12.
  71. [Jaffe2009] Robert L. Jaffe, Alejandro Jenkins and Itamar Kimchi, "Quark masses: An environmental impact statement," Physical Review D, vol. 79 (2009), 065014, available at PDF.
  72. [Jeltema1999] Tesla E. Jeltema and Marc Sher, "Triple-alpha process and the anthropically allowed values of the weak scale," Physical Review D, vol. 61 (1999), 017301, available at PDF.
  73. [Kallosh2009] Renata Kallosh, "M/string theory and anthropic reasoning," 2009, in [Carr2009].
  74. [Lewis2016] Geraint F. Lewis and Luke A. Barnes, A Fortunate Universe: Life in a Finely Tuned Cosmos, Cambridge University Press, London, 2016.
  75. [Linde1991] Andre Linde, Inflation and Quantum Cosmology, CERN, Geneva, Switzerland, 1991, reprinted by Academic Press, New York, 2012.
  76. [Linde2004] Andre Linde, "Inflation, quantum cosmology, and the anthropic principle," in Science and Ultimate Reality: Quantum Theory, Cosmology, and Complexity, John D. Barrow, Paul C. W. Davies and Charles L. Harper, Jr., ed., Cambridge University Press, UK, 2004, pg. 426-458.
  77. [Linde2009] Andrei Linde, "The inflationary universe," 2009, in [Carr2009].
  78. [Linde2017] Andre Linde, "A brief history of the multiverse," Reports on Progress in Physics, vol. 80, 10 Jan 2017, available at PDF.
  79. [Livio1989] Mario Livio, David E. Hollowell and James W. Truran, "The anthropic significance of the existence of an excited state of 12C," Nature, vol. 340 (27 Jul 1989), pg. 281-284, available at PDF.
  80. [Livio2008] Mario Livio, "The interconnections between cosmology and life," 2008, in [Barrow2008].
  81. [MacDonald2009] James MacDonald and Dermott Mullan, "Big bang nucleosynthesis: The strong nuclear force meets the weak anthropic principle," Physical Review D, vol. 80 (2009), 043507, available at PDF.
  82. [Martel1998] Hugo Martel, Paul R. Shapiro and Steven Weinberg, "Likely values of the cosmological constant," Astrophysical Journal, vol. 492 (1998), pg. 29, available at PDF.
  83. [Meisner2015] Ulf-G. Meisner, "Anthropic considerations in nuclear physics," Science Bulletin, vol. 60 (Jan 2015), pg. 43-54, available at PDF.
  84. [Before the Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe and What Lies Be>, Mariner Books, NY, 2022.
  85. [Mukhanov2009] Viatcheslav Mukhanov, "Cosmology and the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics," 2009, in [Carr2009].
  86. [Page2009] Don N. Page, "Predictions and tests of multiverse theories," 2009, in [Carr2009].
  87. [Page2011] Don N. Page, "Preliminary inconclusive hint of evidence against optimal fine tuning of the cosmological constant for maximizing the fraction of baryons becoming life," manuscript, 28 Jan 2011, available at PDF.
  88. [Penrose1989] Roger Penrose, The Emperor's New Mind, Oxford University Press, London, 1989.
  89. [Penrose2004] Roger Penrose, The Road to Reality: A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe, Vintage, London, 2004.
  90. [Pogosian2007] Levon Pogosian and Alexander Vilenkin, "Anthropic predictions for vacuum energy and neutrino masses in the light of WMAP-3," Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 29 Jan 2007, available at PDF.
  91. [Polchinski2006] Joseph Polchinski, "The cosmological constant and the string landscape," 31 Mar 2006, available at PDF.
  92. [Polkinghorne2007] John Polkinghorne, "The anthropic principle and the science and religion debate," Faraday Papers, Cambridge, UK, available at PDF.
  93. [Randall2011] Lisa Randall, "Physicist Lisa Randall on cosmology and the LHC," National Public Radio, 30 Sep 2011, available at HTML.
  94. [Rees2000] Martin J. Rees, Just Six Numbers: The Deep Forces that Shape the Universe, Basic Books, New York, 2000.
  95. [Rees2009] Martin J. Rees, "Cosmology and the multiverse," 2009, in [Carr2009].
  96. [Roberts2018] Siobhan Roberts, "An Italian cosmologist who wanders in Dante's dark wood," Quanta, 13 Nov 2018, available at HTML.
  97. [Schellekens2008] Albert N. Schellekens, "The emperor's last clothes? Overlooking the string theory landscape," Reports on Progress in Physics, vol. 71 (13 Jun 2008), available at PDF.
  98. [Shaw2011] Douglas J. Shaw and John D. Barrow, "Testable solution of the cosmological constant and coincidence problems," Physical Review D, vol. 83 (2011), 043518, available at PDF.
  99. [Smolin2006] Lee Smolin, The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, New York, 2006.
  100. [Smolin2009a] Lee Smolin, "Micro-anthropic principle for quantum theory," 2009, in [Carr2009].
  101. [Smolin2009b] Lee Smolin, "Scientific alternatives to the anthropic principle," 2009, in [Carr2009].
  102. [Smolin2015] Lee Smolin, "You think there's a multiverse? Get real," New Scientist, 20 Jan 2015, available at HTML.
  103. [Smoot1993] George Smoot and Keay Davidson, Wrinkles in Time: The Imprint of Creation, Little, Brown, London, 1993.
  104. [Stoeger2009] William R. Stoeger, "Are anthropic arguments, involving multiverses and beyond, legitimate?," 2009, in [Carr2009].
  105. [Susskind2005] Leonard Susskind, The Cosmic Landscape: String Theory and the Illusion of Intelligent Design, Little, Brown and Company, New York, 2005.
  106. [Susskind2009] Leonard Susskind, "The anthropic landscape of string theory," 2009, in [Carr2009].
  107. [Tegmark1998] Max Tegmark and Martin J. Rees, "Why is the CMB fluctuation level 105?," Astrophysical Journal, vol. 499 (1998), pg. 526-532, available at PDF.
  108. [Tegmark2001] Max Tegmark, Matias Zaldarriaga, and Andrew J. S. Hamilton, "Towards a refined cosmic concordance model: Joint 11-parameter constraints from the cosmic microwave background and large-scale structure," Physical Review D, vol. 63, 043007 (30 Jan 2001), available at PDF.
  109. [Tegmark2006] Max Tegmark, Anthony Aguirre, Martin J. Rees and Frank Wilczek, "Dimensionless constants, cosmology and other dark matters," Physical Review D, vol. 73, 023505 (9 Jan 2006), available at PDF.
  110. [Tegmark2009] Max Tegmark, "The multiverse hierarchy," 2009, in [Carr2009].
  111. [Tegmark2014] Max Tegmark, Our Mathematical Universe: My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality, Knopf, New York, 2014.
  112. [Than2018] Ker Than, "The string theory landscape," Stanford News, 10 Sep 2018, available at HTML.
  113. [Vilenkin2006] Alexander Vilenkin, Many Worlds in One: The Search for Other Universes, Hill and Wang, New York, 2006.
  114. [Vilenkin2009] Alexander Vilenkin, "Anthropic predictions: the case of the cosmological constant," 2009, in [Carr2009].
  115. [Wang2021] Zhi-Wei Wang and Samuel L. Braunstein, "Life, the universe and the hidden meaning of everything," manuscript, 23 Sep 2021, available at PDF.
  116. [Weinberg1989] Steven Weinberg, "The cosmological constant problem," Reviews of Modern Physics, vol. 61 (1989), available at PDF.
  117. [Weinberg1994] Steven Weinberg, "Life in the universe," Scientific American, Oct 1994, pg. 44-49.
  118. [Weinberg2009] Steven Weinberg, "Living in the multiverse," 2009, in [Carr2009].
  119. [Wheeler1996] John A. Wheeler, At Home in the Universe, AIP Press, NY, 1996.
  120. [Wilczek2009a] Frank Wilczek, "Enlightenment, knowledge, ignorance, temptation," 2009, in [Carr2009].
  121. [Wilczek2009b] Frank Wilczek, "A model of anthropic reasoning; the dark to ordinary matter ratio," 2009, in [Carr2009].
  122. [Wilczek2013] Frank Wilczek, "Multiversality," Classical Quantum Gravity, vol 30 (4 Sep 2013), 193001, available at PDF.
  123. [Williams2006] Robyn Williams, "The anthropic universe," Australian Broadcasting Corporation Science Show, 18 Feb 2006, available at HTML.
  124. [Wolchover2013] Natalie Wolchover, "Is nature unnatural?," Quanta, 24 May 2013, available at HTML.
  125. [Wolchover2014] Natalie Wolchover and Peter Byrne, "In a multiverse, what are the odds?," Quanta, 3 Nov 2014, available at HTML.
  126. [Yau2010] Shing-tung Yau, The Shape of Inner Space, Basic Books, New York, 2010.