No Arabic abstract
It is known that in the theory of light scalar fields during inflation, correlation functions suffer from infrared (IR) divergences or large IR loop corrections, leading to the breakdown of perturbation theory. In order to understand the physical meaning of such IR enhancement, we investigate the stochastic properties of an effective equation of motion (EoM) for long-wavelength modes of a canonically normalized light scalar field $phi$ with a general sufficiently flat interaction potential on de Sitter background. Firstly, we provide an alternative refined derivation of the effective action for long-wavelength modes which leads to the effective EoM that correctly reproduces all the IR correlation functions in a good approximation at a late time, by integrating out short-wavelength modes. Next, under the assumption that one can neglect non-local correlations in the influence functional exceeding the coarse-graining scale, we show that the effective EoM for IR modes of the average field in Schwinger-Keldysh formalism $phi^<_c$ can be interpreted as a classical stochastic process in the present model.
We study to what extent the spectral index $n_s$ and the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$ determine the field excursion $Deltaphi$ during inflation. We analyse the possible degeneracy of $Delta phi$ by comparing three broad classes of inflationary models, with different dependence on the number of e-foldings $N$, to benchmark models of chaotic inflation with monomial potentials. The classes discussed cover a large set of inflationary single field models. We find that the field range is not uniquely determined for any value of $(n_s, r)$; one can have the same predictions as chaotic inflation and a very different $Delta phi$. Intriguingly, we find that the field range cannot exceed an upper bound that appears in different classes of models. Finally, $Delta phi$ can even become sub-Planckian, but this requires to go beyond the single-field slow-roll paradigm.
We reply to the recent criticism by Garriga and Tanaka of our proposal that quantum gravitational loop corrections may lead to a secular screening of the effective cosmological constant. Their argument rests upon a renormalization scheme in which the composite operator $(R sqrt{-g} - 4 Lambda sqrt{-g} )_{rm ren}$ is defined to be the trace of the renormalized field equations. Although this is a peculiar prescription, we show that it {it does not preclude secular screening}. Moreover, we show that a constant Ricci scalar {it does not even classically} imply a constant expansion rate. Other important points are: (1) the quantity $R_{rm ren}$ of Garriga and Tanaka is neither a properly defined composite operator, nor is it constant; (2) gauge dependence does not render a Greens function devoid of physical content; (3) scalar models on a non-dynamical de Sitter background (for which there is no gauge issue) can induce arbitrarily large secular contributions to the stress tensor; (4) the same secular corrections appear in observable quantities in quantum gravity; and (5) the prospects seem good for deriving a simple stochastic formulation of quantum gravity in which the leading secular effects can be summed and for which the expectation values of even complicated, gauge invariant operators can be computed at leading order.
Caustic singularity formations in shift-symmetric $k$-essence and Horndeski theories on a fixed Minkowski spacetime were recently argued. In $n$ dimensions, this singularity is the $(n-2)$-dimensional plane in spacetime at which second derivatives of a field diverge and the field loses single-valued description for its evolution. This does not necessarily imply a pathological behavior of the system but rather invalidates the effective description. The effective theory would thus have to be replaced by another to describe the evolution thereafter. In this paper, adopting the planar-symmetric $1$+$1$-dimensional approach employed in the original analysis, we seek all $k$-essence theories in which generic simple wave solutions are free from such caustic singularities. Contrary to the previous claim, we find that not only the standard canonical scalar but also the DBI scalar are free from caustics, as far as planar-symmetric simple wave solutions are concerned. Addition of shift-symmetric Horndeski terms does not change the conclusion.
Inertial observers in de Sitter are surrounded by a horizon and see thermal fluctuations. To them, a massless scalar field appears to follow a random motion but any attractive potential, no matter how weak, will eventually stabilize the field. We study this thermalization process in the static patch (the spacetime region accessible to an individual observer) via a truncation to the low frequency spectrum. We focus on the distribution of the field averaged over a subhorizon region. At timescales much longer than the inverse temperature and to leading order in the coupling, we find the evolution to be Markovian, governed by the same Fokker-Planck equation that arises when the theory is studied in the inflationary setup.
We find exact static stringy solutions of Horava-Lifshitz gravity with the projectability condition but imposing the detailed balance condition near the UV fixed point, and propose a method on constraining the possible pattern of flows in Horava-Lifshitz gravity by using the obtained classical solutions. In the obtained vacuum solutions, the parameters related to the speed of the graviton and the coefficients of quartic spatial derivative terms lead to intriguing effects: the change of graviton speed yields a surplus angle and the quartic derivatives make the square of effective electric charge negative. The result of a few tests based on the geometries of a cone, an excess cone, a black string, and a charged (black) string seems suggestive. For example, the flow of constant graviton speed and variable Newtons coupling can be favored in the vicinity of IR fixed point, but the conclusion is indistinct and far from definite yet. Together with the numerous classical solutions, static or time-dependent, which have already been found, the accumulated data from various future tests will give some hints in constraining the flow patterns more deterministic.