Semiclassical relations and IR effects in de Sitter and slow-roll space-times

Abstract

We calculate IR divergent graviton one-loop corrections to scalar correlators in de Sitter space, and show that the leading IR contribution may be reproduced via simple semiclassical consistency relations. One can likewise use such semiclassical relations to calculate leading IR corrections to correlators in slow-roll inflation. The regulated corrections shift the tensor/scalar ratio and consistency relation of single field inflation, and non-gaussianity parameters averaged over very large distances. For inflation of sufficient duration, for example arising from a chaotic inflationary scenario, these corrections become of order unity. First-order corrections of this size indicate a breakdown of the perturbative expansion, and suggest the need for a non-perturbative description of the corresponding regime. This is analogous to a situation argued to arise in black hole evolution, and to interfere with a sharp perturbative calculation of "missing information" in Hawking radiation.

32 pages, 2 figures; v2: running of spectral index included and other minor changes; v3: minor changes to agree with published version

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Cited by in corpus (7)

• The IR stability of de Sitter: Loop corrections to scalar propagators
• Breakdown of Semiclassical Methods in de Sitter Space
• On Features and Nongaussianity from Inflationary Particle Production
• Inflationary Infrared Divergences: Geometry of the Reheating Surface vs. delta N Formalism
• High energy scattering in gravity and supergravity
• On the Perturbative Stability of Quantum Field Theories in de Sitter Space
• Cosmological UV/IR Divergences and de-Sitter Spacetime