Infrared divergences for free quantum fields in cosmological spacetimes

DOI10.1088/1361-6382/AABCB4zbMATH Open1393.83018arXiv1711.03964OpenAlexW3103392176MaRDI QIDQ4580997FDOQ4580997

Atsushi Higuchi, Nicola Rendell

Publication date: 22 August 2018

Published in: Classical and Quantum Gravity (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: We investigate the nature of infrared divergences for the free graviton and inflaton two-point functions in flat Friedman-Lema^{i}tre-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-point functions behaves like $p^{-2u}$, where $p$ is the momentum, in the infrared, then it can be made to behave like $p^{-2u+2}$ by large gauge transformations. On the other hand, it is known that, if one smears these two-point functions in a gauge-invariant manner, the power of the momentum in the integrand is changed from $p^{-2u}$ to $p^{-2u+4}$. This fact suggests that the power of the momentum in the integrand for these two-point functions can be increased by $4$ using large gauge transformations. In this paper we show that this is indeed the case. Thus, the two-point functions for the graviton and inflaton fields can be made finite by large gauge transformations for a large class of potentials and states in single-field inflation.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1711.03964

zbMATH Keywords

QFT in curved spacetimeinfrared divergenceslarge gauge transformations

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Quantum field theory on curved space or space-time backgrounds (81T20) Methods of quantum field theory in general relativity and gravitational theory (83C47) Relativistic cosmology (83F05)

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Cited In (9)

• Realisation of the ultra-slow roll phase in Galileon inflation and PBH overproduction
• Galileon inflation evades the no-go for PBH formation in the single-field framework
• Light scalars on cosmological backgrounds
• 'Hidden' symmetry of linearized gravity in de Sitter space
• Infrared divergences in the EPRL-FK spin foam model
• Approaches to linear local gauge-invariant observables in inflationary cosmologies
• Quantum loop effects on the power spectrum and constraints on primordial black holes
• Bonus properties of states of low energy
• On the spacetime structure of infrared divergencies in QED

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