Does Planck actually ``see the Bunch-Davies state?

DOI10.1088/1475-7516/2021/07/050zbMATH Open1485.83097arXiv2104.13410OpenAlexW3158159952MaRDI QIDQ5029564FDOQ5029564

Authors:

Publication date: 14 February 2022

Published in: Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: To what extent can the Planck satellite observations be interpreted as confirmation of the quantum part of the inflationary paradigm? Has it "seen" the Bunch-Davies state? We compare and contrast the Bunch-Davies interpretation with one using a so-called entangled state in which the fluctuations of a spectator scalar field are entangled with those of the metric perturbations $zeta$. We first show how a spectator scalar field $Sigma$, with an expectation value $sigma(t)$ that evolves in time, will generically generate such a state. We then use this state to compute the power spectrum $P_{zeta}(k)$ and thence the temperature anisotropies $C_l$ in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). We find interesting differences from the standard calculations using the Bunch-Davies (BD) state. We argue that existing data may already be used to place interesting bounds on this class of deviations from the BD state and that, for some values of the parameters of the state, the power spectra may be consistent with the Planck satellite data.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/2104.13410

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zbMATH Keywords

inflationquantum cosmologyphysics of the early universeaxions

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Quantum optics (81V80) Quantum coherence, entanglement, quantum correlations (81P40) Other elementary particle theory in quantum theory (81V25) Quantization of the gravitational field (83C45) Relativistic cosmology (83F05) Observational and experimental questions in relativity and gravitational theory (83B05) Geometrodynamics and the holographic principle (83E05)

Cites Work

• A new type of isotropic cosmological models without singularity
• Inflationary universe: A possible solution to the horizon and flatness problems
• Quantum Fields in Curved Space
• Cosmological consequences of initial state entanglement
• Effective field theory and non-Gaussianity from general inflationary states
• Republication of: The dynamics of general relativity
• Title not available (Why is that?)
• Non-Gaussianity from entanglement during inflation

Cited In (3)

• Non-Gaussianity from entanglement during inflation
• Observations in quantum cosmology
• Entanglement masquerading in the CMB

Uses Software

• MathGR
• CLASS

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