Year: 1994
Type: article
Abstract: Inflationary cosmology is analyzed from the point of view of squeezed quantum states. As noted by Grishchuk and Sidorov, the amplification of quantum fluctuations into macroscopic perturbations which occurs during cosmic inflation is a process of quantum squeezing. We carefully develop the squeezed state formalism and derive the equations that govern the evolution of a Gaussian initial state. We derive the power spectrum of density perturbations for a simple inflationary model and discuss its features. We conclude that the squeezed state formalism provides an interesting framework within which to study the amplificaiton process, but, in disagreement with the claims of Grishchuk and Sidorov, that it does not provide us with any new physical results.
Authors: Andreas Albrecht, Pedro Ferreira, Michael Joyce, Tomislav Prokopec
Institution: Imperial College London
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2128149447