2010/05/25 by L. H. Ford, S. P. Miao, Kin‐Wang Ng +3
Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Relativity and Gravitational Theory #astro-ph.CO #gr-qc
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.82.043501
published as Phys.Rev.D82:043501,2010 · 31 pages, 1 figure, uses LaTeX2epsilon
arxiv created 2010/05/25 · openalex publication_date 2010/08/04 · arxiv updated 2011/08/15 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We discuss the additional perturbation introduced during inflation by quantum stress tensor fluctuations of a conformally invariant field such as the photon. We consider both a kinematical model, which deals only with the expansion fluctuations of geodesics, and a dynamical model which treats the coupling of the stress tensor fluctuations to a scalar inflaton. In neither model do we find any growth at late times, in accordance with a theorem due to Weinberg. What we find instead is a correction which becomes larger the earlier one starts inflation. This correction is non-Gaussian and highly scale dependent, so the absence of such effects from the observed power spectra may imply a constraint on the total duration of inflation. We discuss different views about the validity of perturbation theory at very early times during which currently observable modes are trans-Planckian.