Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Predictions from early universe cosmology typically concern primordial perturbations generated during epochs where effects arising from the quantum nature of gravity may be important; quantum vacuum fluctuations being stretched to cosmological scales during a phase of inflation. Quantizing the background is then done by assuming a single close-to-classical state over which perturbations grow, as well as a Born-Oppenheimer factorization throughout the relevant phase. We present a scenario in which although the latter factorization remains valid at all times, we allow the background state to be very non-classical by defining quantum trajectories through an eikonal approximation. We find that these trajectories asymptotically reproduce an almost classical behavior for the background, but the predictions for the power spectrum of perturbations can significantly differ.
DOI: 10.1103/mg4q-mkmx
Authors: Kratika Mazde, Lisa Mickel, Patrick Peter
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funder: Leverhulme Trust
OpenAlex ID: W4417210324