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This may have been on the table before but I don't find such a question directly.

If we started to approach the concept of a universal wave function, how would we consider the matter outside the observable universe?

Would that be part of the range or scope of the wave form?

Edit: The concept would be less impressive and less general if it had to be represented anew for every point in space.

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Well, if your talking about the Hartle-Hawking wavefunction of the Universe, then their solution was to only consider closed universes (both in space and time). So that means there is only a finite volume to consider. There would not be anything else outside it.

Personally, I think you could probably construct a theory limited to the visible portion of the Universe, but that is not the common consensus.

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    $\begingroup$ I think, he is not talking about closed or open, but about “outside” of our observable part of the universe. Even in a closed universe there may be regions that will never be observable by us because of the light speed limit and expansion (right?) $\endgroup$
    – Hartmut Braun
    Sep 12, 2019 at 7:32
  • $\begingroup$ That is what I meant although I must admit I didn't think of open or closed versions. $\endgroup$
    – Mikael Jensen
    Sep 12, 2019 at 10:02

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