A naive computation of the correlation functions of fluctuations generated during inflation suffers from logarithmic divergences in the infrared (IR) limit. In this paper, we propose one way to solve this IR divergence problem in the single-field inflation model. The key observation is that the variables that are commonly used in describing fluctuations are influenced by what we cannot observe. Introducing a new perturbation variable which mimics what we actually observe, we propose a new prescription to solve the time evolution of perturbation in which this leakage of information from the unobservable region of the universe is shut off. We give a proof that IR divergences are absent as long as we follow this new scheme. We also show that the secular growth of the amplitude of perturbation is also suppressed, at least, unless very higher order perturbation is discussed.
Loop corrections to observables in slow-roll inflation are found to diverge no worse than powers of the log of the scale factor, extending Weinberg's theorem to quasi-single field inflation models. Demanding perturbation theory be valid during primordial inflation leads to constraints on the effective lagrangian. This leads to some interesting constraints and coincidences on the landscape of inflationary vacua.
We propose one way to regularize the fluctuations generated during inflation, whose infrared (IR) corrections diverge logarithmically. In the case of a single field inflation model, recently, we proposed one solution to the IR divergence problem. There, we introduced new perturbative variables which better mimic actual observable fluctuations, and proved the regularity of correlation functions with respect to these variables. In this paper, we extend our previous discussions to a multi field inflation model. We show that, as long as we consider the case that the non-linear interaction acts for…
We estimate fermion loop corrections to the two-point correlation function of primordial tensor perturbations in a slow-roll inflationary background. We particularly compute an explicit term of one-loop correction from a massless fermion, and then extend to the complete Interaction Hamiltonian. After that, we study one-loop corrections contributed by a massive fermion to primordial tensor fluctuations. The loop correction arisen from a massless fermion field contains logarithms and thus may constrain the validity of perturbation theory in inflationary cosmology, but the situation could be rela…
Inflation in the early Universe is a grand phase transition which have produced the seeds of all the structures we now observe. We focus on the non-equilibrium aspect of this phase transition especially the inevitable infrared (IR) divergence associated to the the quantum and classical fields during the inflation. There is a long history of research for removing this IR divergence for healthy perturbation calculations. On the other hand, the same IR divergence is quite relevant and have developed the primordial density fluctuations in the early Universe. We develop a unified formalism in which…
Based on the stochastic gravity, we study the loop corrections to the scalar and tensor perturbations during inflation. Since the loop corrections to scalar perturbations suffer infrared (IR) divergence, we consider the IR regularization to obtain the finite value. We find that the loop corrections to the scalar perturbations are amplified by the e-folding; in other words there appear the logarithmic correction, just as discussed by M.Sloth et al. On the other hand, we find that the tensor perturbations do not suffer from infrared divergence.
We study leading order perturbative corrections to the two point correlation function of the scalar field describing the curvature perturbation in a slow-roll inflationary background, paying particular attention to the contribution of entropy mode loops. We find that the infrared divergences are worse than in pure de Sitter space: they are power law rather than logarithmic. The validity of perturbation theory and thus of the effective field theory of cosmological perturbations leads to stringent constraints on the coupling constants describing the interactions, in our model the quartic self-in…
We study the quantum effects induced by bulk scalar fields in a model with a de Sitter (dS) brane in a flat bulk (the Vilenkin-Ipser-Sikivie model) in more than four dimensions. In ordinary dS space, it is well known that the stress tensor in the dS invariant vacuum for an effectively massless scalar ($m_\eff^2=m^2+ξ{\cal R}=0$ with ${\cal R}$ the Ricci scalar) is infrared divergent except for the minimally coupled case. The usual procedure to tame this divergence is to replace the dS invariant vacuum by the Allen Follaci (AF) vacuum. The resulting stress tensor breaks dS symmetry but is regul…
We study the infrared divergences arising from gravitational loops in the standard cosmological perturbation theory. We provide a simple solution to the problem at all orders of cosmological perturbation theory by redefining the perturbation theory in terms of a local observer. We propose to reformulate the standard perturbations in the in-in formalism, and obtain an infrared safe perturbation theory. Our results do not depend on any infrared cutoffs or similar parameters. We then present an explicit example of graviton one-loop corrections, and briefly discuss non-gaussianities.
One of the most important issues in an inflationary theory as standard or quintessential inflation is the mechanism to reheat the universe after the end of the inflationary period in order to match with the Hot Big Bang universe. In quintessential inflation two mechanisms are frequently used, namely the reheating via gravitational particle production which is, as we will see, very efficient when the phase transition from the end of inflation to a kinetic regime (all the energy of the inflaton field is kinetic) is very abrupt, and the so-called instant preheating which is used for a very smooth…
Light scalars in inflationary spacetimes suffer from logarithmic infrared divergences at every order in perturbation theory. This corresponds to the scalar field values in different Hubble patches undergoing a random walk of quantum fluctuations, leading to a simple toy "landscape" on superhorizon scales, in which we can explore questions relevant to eternal inflation. However, for a sufficiently long period of inflation, the infrared divergences appear to spoil computability. Some form of renormalization group approach is thus motivated to resum the log divergences of conformal time. Such a r…
We describe a simple way of incorporating fluctuations of the Hubble scale during the horizon exit of scalar perturbations into the delta N formalism. The dominant effect comes from the dependence of the Hubble scale on low-frequency modes of the inflaton. This modifies the coefficient of the log-enhanced term appearing in the curvature spectrum at second order in field fluctuations. With this modification, the relevant coefficient turns out to be proportional to the second derivative of the tree-level spectrum with respect to the inflaton phi at horizon exit. A logarithm with precisely the sa…
We calculate 1-loop corrections to the Schwinger-Keldysh propagators of Standard-Model-like fields of spin-0, 1/2, and 1, with all renormalizable interactions during inflation. We pay special attention to the late-time divergences of loop corrections, and show that the divergences can be resummed into finite results in the late-time limit using dynamical renormalization group method. This is our first step toward studying both the standard model and new physics in the primordial universe.
We study a consistent infrared and ultraviolet regularization scheme for the cosmological perturbations. The infrared divergences are cured by assuming that the Universe undergoes a transition between a non-singular pre-inflationary, radiation-dominated phase and a slow-roll inflationary evolution. The ultraviolet divergences are eliminated via adiabatic subtraction. A consistent regularization of the field fluctuations through this transition is obtained by performing a mode matching for both the gauge invariant Mukhanov variable and its adiabatic expansion. We show that these quantities do n…
Understanding how a field theory propagates the information contained in a given initial state is essential for quantifying the sensitivity of the cosmic microwave background to physics above the Hubble scale during inflation. Here we examine the renormalization of a scalar theory with nontrivial initial conditions in the simpler setting of flat space. The renormalization of the bulk theory proceeds exactly as for the standard vacuum state. However, the short distance features of the initial conditions can introduce new divergences which are confined to the surface on which the initial conditi…
We investigate linear cosmological perturbations in multiple field inflationary models where some of the directions are light while others are heavy (with respect to the Hubble parameter). By integrating out the massive degrees of freedom, we determine the multi-dimensional effective theory for the light degrees of freedom and give explicitly the propagation matrix that replaces the effective sound speed of the one-dimensional case. We then examine in detail the consequences of a sudden turn along the inflationary trajectory, in particular the possible breakdown of the low energy effective the…
Many cosmological observables of interest derive from primordial vacuum fluctuations evolved to late times. These observables represent statistical draws from some underlying quantum or statistical field theoretic framework where infinities arise and require regularization. After subtracting divergences, renormalization conditions must be imposed by measurements or observations at some scale, mindful of scheme and background dependence. We review this process on backgrounds that transition from finite duration inflation to radiation domination, and show how in spite of the ubiquity of scaleles…
We use dimensional regularization to evaluate the one loop contribution to the graviton self-energy from a massless, minimally coupled scalar on a locally de Sitter background. For noncoincident points our result agrees with the stress tensor correlators obtained recently by Perez-Nadal, Roura and Verdaguer. We absorb the ultraviolet divergences using the $R^2$ and $C^2$ counterterms first derived by 't Hooft and Veltman, and we take the $D=4$ limit of the finite remainder. The renormalized result is expressed as the sum of two transverse, 4th order differential operators acting on nonlocal, d…
We investigate the coupling between the inflaton and massive vector fields. All renormalizable couplings with shift symmetry of the inflaton are considered. The massive vector can be decomposed into a scalar mode and a divergence-free vector mode. We show that the former naturally interacts with the inflaton and the latter decouples at tree level. The model in general predicts $f_{NL}^\mathrm{equil} = \mathcal{O}(1)$, while in some regions of the parameter space large non-Gaussianity can arise.
The spectrum of relic gravitational wave (RGW) contains high-frequency divergences, which should be removed. We present a systematic study of the issue, based on the exact RGW solution that covers the five stages, from inflation to the acceleration, each being a power law expansion. We show that the present RGW consists of vacuum dominating at $f>10^{11}$Hz and graviton dominating at $f<10^{11}$Hz, respectively. The gravitons are produced by the four cosmic transitions, mostly by the inflation-reheating one. We perform adiabatic regularization to remove vacuum divergences in three schemes: at …
We address the infrared(IR) divergence problem during inflation that appears in the loop corrections to the primordial perturbations. In our previous paper, we claimed that, at least in single field models, the IR divergence is originating from the gauge artifact. Namely, diverging IR corrections should not appear in genuine gauge-invariant observables. We propose here one simple but explicit example of such gauge-invariant quantities. Then, we explicitly calculate such a quantity to find that the IR divergence is absent at the leading order in the slow-roll approximation for the usual scale i…
In this work we study the effects of the electromagnetic coupling in natural inflation in a systematic manner using the Schwinger-Keldysh formalism. The corresponding influence functional is evaluated to one-loop level. It can be interpreted as due to a single stochastic force. The equation of motion of the inflaton field is therefore given in the form of a Langevin equation. Lastly, the two-point and the three-point correlation functions of the inflaton field are worked out. They are related to the power spectrum and the nongaussianity of the inflaton field, respectively.
In recent publications we proposed one way to calculate gauge-invariant variables in the local observable universe, which is limited to a portion of the whole universe. To provide a theoretical prediction of the observable fluctuations, we need to preserve the gauge-invariance in the local universe, which is referred to the genuine gauge-invariance. The importance of the genuine gauge-invariance is highlighted in the study of primordial fluctuations in the infrared (IR) limit. The stability against IR loop corrections to primordial fluctuations is guaranteed in requesting the genuine gauge-inv…
Using the techniques of out-of-equilibrium field theory, we study the influence on the properties of cosmological perturbations generated during inflation on observable scales coming from fluctuations corresponding today to scales much bigger than the present Hubble radius. We write the effective action for the coarse-grained inflaton perturbations integrating out the sub-horizon modes, which manifest themselves as a colored noise and lead to memory effects. Using the simple model of a scalar field with cubic self-interactions evolving in a fixed de Sitter background, we evaluate the two- and …
In the present paper we discuss how trans-Planckian physics affects inflationary vacuum fluctuations and primordial density perturbations. The trans-Planckian problem during inflation has been widely discussed in literature, but it is still under debate. We reconsider this problem by using the two-point correlation function of the non-minimally coupled scalar fields and constructing the effective potential with the adiabatic (WKB) regularization or approximation. First, we clearly show that the cut-off divergence of the quantum fluctuations does not drastically change during inflation under re…
We prove that a homogeneous and isotropic universe containing a scalar field with a power-law potential, $V(ϕ)=Aϕ^{n}$, with $0<n<1$ and $A>0$ always develops a finite-time singularity at which the Hubble rate and its first derivative are finite, but its second derivative diverges. These are the first examples of cosmological models with realistic matter sources that possess weak singularities of 'sudden' type. We also show that a large class of models with even weaker singularities exist for non-integer $n>1$. More precisely, if $k<n<k+1$ where $k$ is a positive integer then the first diverge…
The quantisation of scalar field theory and Einstein gravity is investigated using a fully covariant background field formalism, including Vilkovisky-DeWitt corrections. The one-loop divergences, which are relevant for the consistency of the low-energy effective theory, differ substantially from non-covariant calculations. The results are applied to the effective action of Higgs inflation, with a non-minimal gravity coupling parameter $ξ$, where the use of a formalism which is independent of field redefinitions is particularly important. Consistency of the one-loop effective action requires th…
We review the recent progress regarding the loop corrections to the correlation functions in the inflationary universe. A naive perturbation theory predicts that loop corrections generated during inflation suffer from various infrared (IR) pathologies. Introducing an IR cutoff by hand is not only unsatisfactory but also does not fix the problem of secular growth, which may ruin the predictive power of inflation models if the inflation lasts sufficiently long. We discuss the origin of the IR divergences and explore the regularity conditions of loop corrections for the adiabatic perturbation, th…
We investigate the nature of infrared divergences for the free graviton and inflaton two-point functions in flat Friedman-Lema\^ıtre-Robertson-Walker spacetime. These divergences arise because the momentum integral for these two-point functions diverges in the infrared. It is straightforward to see that the power of the momentum in the integrand can be increased by $2$ in the infrared using large gauge transformations, which are sufficient for rendering these two-point functions infrared finite for slow-roll inflation. In other words, if the integrand of the momentum integral for these two-poi…
We examine the renormalization of an effective theory description of a general initial state set in an isotropically expanding space-time, which is done to understand how to include the effects of new physics in the calculation of the cosmic microwave background power spectrum. The divergences that arise in a perturbative treatment of the theory are of two forms: those associated with the properties of a field propagating through the bulk of space-time, which are unaffected by the choice of the initial state, and those that result from summing over the short-distance structure of the initial s…
We show how the quantum to classical transition of the cosmological fluctuations produced during inflation can be described by means of the influence functional and the master equation. We split the inflaton field into the system-field (long-wavelength modes), and the environment, represented by its own short-wavelength modes. We compute the decoherence times for the system-field modes and compare them with the other time scales of the model. We present the renormalized stochastic Langevin equation for an homogeneous system-field and then we analyze the influence of the environment on the powe…
Inflationary predictions based on the linear theory of cosmological perturbations are related to the two point function of a (second quantized) real scalar free field during the accelerated stage. Such a two point function is finite, in contrast with its coincidence limit, which is divergent due to the ultraviolet divergences proper of field theory. We therefore argue that predictions of most of the inflationary models do not necessarily need a regularization scheme to leading order, i.e. tree level, which is required instead for non-linear corrections or calculations involving the energy-mome…
The observed power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) is consistent with inflationary cosmology, which predicts a nearly scale-invariant power spectrum of quantum fluctuations of the inflaton field as they exit the Hubble horizon during inflation. Here we report a very significant correction (of several orders of magnitude) to the predicted amplitude of the power spectrum. This correction does not alter the near scale-invariance of the spectrum, but is crucial for testing predictions of the Hubble parameter during inflation against the observed amplitude of the CMB power spectru…
Constraints on polynomial inflation under power-law perturbations
Federal University of Itajubá（伊塔朱巴联邦大学）；Scuola Superiore Meridionale（南方高等学院）；Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), sez. di Napoli（意大利国家核物理研究所（INFN）那不勒斯分部）
My project computed the one loop fermion self-energy for massless Dirac + Einstein in the presence of a locally de Sitter background. I employed dimensional regularization and obtain a fully renormalized result by absorbing all divergences with Bogliubov, Parasiuk, Hepp and Zimmermann (BPHZ) counterterms. An interesting technical aspect of my computation was the need for a noninvariant counterterm, owing to the breaking of de Sitter invariance by our gauge condition. I also solved the effective Dirac equation for massless fermions during inflation in the simplest gauge, including all one loop …
We investigate the gauge-invariant observables constructed by smearing the graviton and inflaton fields by compactly supported tensors at linear order in general single-field inflation. These observables correspond to gauge-invariant quantities that can be measured locally. In particular, we show that these observables are equivalent to (smeared) local gauge-invariant observables such as the linearised Weyl tensor, which have better infrared properties than the graviton and inflaton fields. Special cases include the equivalence between the compactly supported gauge-invariant graviton observabl…
The deep interrelation between elementary particle physics and cosmology manifests itself when one considers the contribution of quantum fluctuations of vacuum fields to the dark energy and the effective cosmological constant. The contribution of zero-point energy exceeds by many orders of magnitude the observational cosmological upper bound on the energy density of the universe. Therefore it seems natural to expect that vacuum fluctuations of the fundamental fields would influence the cosmological evolution in any way. Our aim in this review article is to describe a recent investigation of th…
Self-energies of a minimally coupled scalar field with quartic and trilinear interactions are calculated in a de Sitter background, using a position space propagator. For quartic interactions, we recover earlier results for the seagull diagram, namely that it contributes an effective mass for the scalar field at leading order in the infrared enhancement in a steady-state de Sitter background. We further show that the sunset diagram also contributes to this effective mass and argue that these two contributions are sufficient in order to determine a self-consistent dynamical mass. In addition, t…
We present a systematic prescription for calculating cosmological correlation functions for models with derivative interactions through the wavefunction of the universe and compare this result with the "in-in" formalism -- canonical approach. The key step in this procedure is to perform the path integral over conjugate momenta after which a straightforward generalisation of Feynman's Rules can be applied. We show that this integral recovers the classical action plus some additional divergent contributions which are necessary to cancel other divergences that arise due to loop diagrams involving…
We consider one loop graviton corrections to scalar field Green's functions in the de Sitter phase of an inflationary space-time, a topic relevant to the computation of cosmological observables beyond linear order. By embedding de-Sitter space into an ultraviolet complete theory such as M-theory we argue that the ultraviolet (UV) cutoff of the effective field theory should be taken to be fixed in physical coordinates, whereas the infrared (IR) cutoff is expanding as space expands. In this context, we demonstrate how to implement three different regularization schemes -- the brute force cutoff …
The Hamiltonian structure of general relativity provides a natural canonical measure on the space of all classical universes, i.e., the multiverse. We review this construction and show how one can visualize the measure in terms of a "magnetic flux" of solutions through phase space. Previous studies identified a divergence in the measure, which we observe to be due to the dilatation invariance of flat FRW universes. We show that the divergence is removed if we identify universes which are so flat they cannot be observationally distinguished. The resulting measure is independent of time and of t…
In this paper we consider the influence of transplanckian physics on the CMBR anisotropies produced by inflation. We consider a simple toy model that allows for analytic calculations and argue on general grounds, based on ambiguities in the choice of vacuum, that effects are expected with a magnitude of the order of $H/Λ$, where $H$ is the Hubble constant during inflation and $Λ$ the scale for new physics, e.g. the Planck scale.
Motivated by apparent persistent large scale anomalies in the CMB we study the influence of fermionic degrees of freedom on the dynamics of inflaton fluctuations as a possible source of violations of (nearly) scale invariance on cosmological scales. We obtain the non-equilibrium effective action of an inflaton-like scalar field with Yukawa interactions ($Y_{D,M}$) to light \emph{fermionic} degrees of freedom both for Dirac and Majorana fields in de Sitter space-time. The effective action leads to Langevin equations of motion for the fluctuations of the inflaton-like field, with self-energy cor…
We study the influence of anomalous U(1) symmetries and their associated D-terms on the vacuum structure of global field theories once they are coupled to N=1 supergravity and in the context of string compactifications with moduli stabilisation. In particular, we focus on a IIB string motivated construction of the ISS scenario and examine the influence of one additional U(1) symmetry on the vacuum structure. We point out that in the simplest one-Kahler modulus compactification, the original ISS vacuum gets generically destabilised by a runaway behaviour of the potential in the modulus directio…
We investigate the potential impact of mass inflation inside black holes on the dynamics of the Universe, considering a recent reformulation of general relativity, proposed in [1], which prevents the vacuum energy from acting as a gravitational source. The interior dynamics of accreting black holes is studied, at the classical level, using the homogeneous approximation and taking charge as a surrogate for angular momentum. We show that, depending on the accreting fluid properties, mass inflation inside black holes could influence the value of the cosmological constant and thus the dynamics of …
We study a statistical model defined by a conformally invariant distribution of overlapping spheres in arbitrary dimension d. The model arises as the asymptotic distribution of cosmic bubbles in d+1 dimensional de Sitter space, and also as the asymptotic distribution of bubble collisions with the domain wall of a fiducial "observation bubble" in d+2 dimensional de Sitter space. In this note we calculate the 2-,3-, and 4-point correlation functions of exponentials of the "bubble number operator" analytically in d=2. We find that these correlators, when carefully defined, are free of infrared di…
We examine the spectrum of inflaton fluctuations resulting from any given long period of exponential inflation. Infrared and ultraviolet divergences in the inflaton dispersion summed over all modes do not appear in our approach. We show how the scale-invariance of the perturbation spectrum arises. We also examine the spectrum of scalar perturbations of the metric that are created by the inflaton fluctuations that have left the Hubble sphere during inflation and the spectrum of density perturbations that they produce at reentry after inflation has ended. When the inflaton dispersion spectrum is…
In this work, we investigated the electroweak vacuum instability during or after inflation. In the inflationary Universe, i.e., de Sitter space, the vacuum field fluctuations $\left< {δϕ}^{ 2 } \right>$ enlarge in proportion to the Hubble scale $H^{2}$. Therefore, the large inflationary vacuum fluctuations of the Higgs field $\left< {δϕ}^{ 2 } \right>$ are potentially catastrophic to trigger the vacuum transition to the negative-energy Planck-scale vacuum state and cause an immediate collapse of the Universe. However, the vacuum field fluctuations $\left< {δϕ}^{ 2 } \right>$, i.e., the vacuum …
