2005/05/18 by L. D. Duffy, Leanne Duffy, R. P. Woodard
Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Quantum Electrodynamics and Casimir Effect #astro-ph #gr-qc #hep-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.72.024023
published as Phys.Rev. D72 (2005) 024023 · 23 pages, LaTeX 2epsilon, 3 figures (uses axodraw)
arxiv created 2005/05/18 · openalex publication_date 2005/07/27 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We compute the one loop self-mass-squared of a massless, minimally coupled scalar which is Yukawa-coupled to a massless Dirac fermion in a general conformally flat background. Dimensional regularization is employed and a fully renormalized result is obtained. For the special case of a locally de Sitter background our result is manifestly de Sitter invariant. By solving the effective field equations we show that the scalar mode functions acquire no significant one loop corrections. In particular, the phenomenon of superadiabatic amplification is not affected. One consequence is that the scalar-catalyzed production of fermions during inflation should not be reduced by changes in the scalar sector before it has time to go to completion.